My Little Pony: Ragnarok is Magic.

by Castel

In_Sphinx

My Little Pony: Ragnarök is Magic Chapter '3'

In_Sphinx.

As the two ponies ventured inside the sphinx, they were greeted by a long, worn out set of stairs heading underground. Sand and dust decorated the ancient stairway and rows of large pillars flanked the path on each side as they went down the steps. Long torches stuck from the floor between every other pillar, with small flames that floated just above the rods, never actually burning the material. The shadows of the pillars cast by the wobbling flames danced in the walls and floor ahead in a nearly hypnotizing pattern.

The pair reached the bottom of the stairs quickly, but the shades from behind still illuminated the path with shifting lights; the inside of the sphinx was in a much worse condition than the maze of the pyramid, and it reminded Rarity of the abandoned state of the second basement where she found the minotaur, only the lighting was even worse in here.

"There should be a rune just on the other side of this wall." the unicorn said in a soft tone as she checked her map, "It should be just around the next couple of turns to the left..."

They quietly made their way to the other side of the wall, but unlike the stairs at the entrance, there was only a slope reaching up to a corner, with pillars standing close to each other, forming a triangle from the end of the corner down to where the slope started. The wall on the corner had a carving of a human posing almost exactly like the statues of pharaohs at the gate on the desert, except the human on this carving lacked a hat, much to Rarity's disappointment.

"Let us be careful, though, it says in the map there are traps guarding the rune, but it doesn't point out the exact spot..." Rarity walked slowly while looking at the sides of the pillars, expecting something to jump out from behind them, but nothing happened as she approached the rune.

The rune was placed exactly on the carving's stomach, and as Rarity inched closer to inspect it, a light clicking sound echoed throughout the room as she stepped on a stone pressure plate.

She stopped dead on her tracks and looked down to notice her right forehoof was sinking slightly into the floor, and her eyes grew big as platters when she looked up to notice the carving's eyes began lighting up. She jumped backwards with a surprised scream, only to be whisked away by Rainbow as the flames struck directly where she stood seconds ago.

"Nice reflexes..." Dash said in a dumbfounded tone as she set the trembling unicorn carefully on the floor, all the while looking at the slowly dying flames shooting from the wall.

"T-thank you... nice catch..." Rarity shakily said as she held on to her pegasus friend, trembling as she looked at the charred mark on the floor where she'd stood seconds ago.

"No prob." the pegasus stared at the carving as the fire spewing out of its eyes died out, "So, fire traps..." She kept staring as what she just saw sank in.

"And they are activated by stepping on random spots, too." Rarity was still slightly shaken as she looked up at her friend, "I don't suppose you could... fly me over there?"

"Those pillars are too close together..." Rainbow looked back at her wings, extending them as she made measurements on her head, "But we can give it a try."

She grabbed Rarity by her forearms and flied over to the rune through the narrow spaces between the pillars; her wings wouldn't be able to fully open with the pillars at her sides, so she had to concentrate on the wind around her, and time her flaps while giving them enough strength to keep both of them airborne.

Rainbow Dash felt her wings started burning up from the effort, making it harder to concentrate on the currents of air helping her stay afloat, and she soon had Rarity dangling just above the rune, but the unicorn's horn was already alive with a blue aura around it and pointing at the rune on the wall.

"Hurry it up down there, it's kinda hard floating with a passenger!" Dash urged, her wings flapping wildly at her sides, only allowing her to fall slowly.

"This rune isn't damaged, Dash! Bring us back down!" Rarity's horn stopped glowing and a fiery red light reflected on her coat as the rune's powers responded to her own magic.

Rarity's hind legs were merely an inch away from scraping the floor as Rainbow flew them back to a safe spot. They couldn't help landing somewhat abruptly from the exertion, and the pegasus panted lightly as her wings rested numbly at her sides.

Rarity looked back at her friend, who started stretching her wings while she calmed down her breathing. "Thank you, dear. I promise to be more careful from now on." She approached the pegasus and placed a hoof by her wings, "And I promise to give your lovely wings the most wonderful massage once we get out of this dreadful place."

The burning on Dash's wings lessened at the soft touch, and was replaced by a burning on her cheeks, "Ah, um, I mean-- yeah, okay." she stammered as she tried to hide her excitement.

--

The pair continued to make their way through the maze with the help of the map, reaching the next three runes without any major problems now that they knew what to expect. Rarity managed to spot many of the traps by keeping an eye close to the floor around the marked areas, and the ones she missed were avoided thanks to the pair's quick reflexes and Dash's speed; a couple more fire traps came from statues near two of the runes, and the third rune actually had a pit trap with spikes at the bottom, just at the foot of the tomb the rune laid on. None of the runes so far had been damaged, and the ponies were actually optimistic, even as Dash complained about it being "all too easy."

The only creatures they had found on this level so far were bats like the one that Rarity encountered at the pyramid, which were no match for 'The Dash' in aerial combat; the pegasus easily knocking them out of the air by ramming into them with her hooves at high speeds.

"That'll teach you to hurt my friends!" Rainbow yelled as she bucked one of the beasts, sending it crashing into a wall with a resounding thud, and the pegasus landed back next to her friend with a satisfied smile on her face.

"Such awful creatures... why won't they simply let us pass in peace?" Rarity shuddered as she watched the bat landing on the ground, bringing a hoof to her neck where a slight itch from her former wound still remained.

"Serves 'em right for hurting my gal pal!" Rainbow wrapped a foreleg around her friend's neck, bringing her closer.

Rarity giggled as a soft blush appeared on her white face, "Why, thank you, dear. Such chivalry!" She leaned against Dash, who started giggling as well before letting her go.

The pair started making their way to the last rune of the first level, which was located directly on the entrance to the next level of the sphinx according to their map. They kept finding bats on the way, but Dash dealt with them with ease, with many of the creatures eventually flying away when they saw them approach.

As they neared their destination, various loud clinking noises, like stone hitting stone, could be heard coming from further ahead, just around the next corner, and Rarity looked up at Rainbow as she brought a hoof to her mouth before they both silently approached to take a peek from the corner.

Various small humans were standing next to a set of stairs going down into what looked like the doorway to the second level. Some of the humans were standing around, carrying huge stone blocks on their backs, which were easily as big, if not bigger, than the humans themselves; other humans were climbing up to the altar right above the entrance to the lower level, where ornate carvings decorated the wall, along with the rune the ponies were looking for.

Rarity let out a breath as he prepared to talk to the creatures, before they simply started angrily slamming the rune with their stone blocks, slowly chipping away at the wall.

"Wait!" The unicorn leapt from behind the corner, and the creatures turned back to glare directly at the strange creature.

Only now did the ponies realize something was very wrong about these humans; they wore nothing except for a thick set of underpants, and they had big, heavy shackles on their legs. Their deep dark skin was bulging with muscles, while their eyes were completely white and lifeless in stark contrast.

The creatures started moving surprisingly fast towards the ponies, low grunts and growls coming from them as they marched angrily, carrying the enormous blocks of stone on their backs.

Rarity didn't even have time to try to appease the angry creatures as they were upon her almost immediately, trying to squash her by throwing their stone blocks over their heads and onto her.

"Rares!" Dash was upon the creatures immediately, but they hid behind their blocks, using them as shields to defend themselves from the incoming pony missile and forcing the pegasus to simply fly in circles above them menacingly.

Rarity managed to scramble away from the creatures' attacks in time, and now watched as her friend tried fruitlessly to attack them. "Dash, try to get them to follow you!" she brought out her bow and nocked an arrow with her magic in preparation as her friend nodded at her.

Rainbow touched down a few feet away and taunted at the monsters, "Hey, you dumb, ugly bald monkey things! Betcha can't catch me!" You better have a good plan, Rares!

The monsters looked at the noisy creature with anger as they lifted the blocks back onto their backs, and they started chasing after the rainbow annoyance. Rarity saw her chance; she let loose an arrow that struck one of the creatures directly on the leg, causing it to trip to the ground along with its stone block, which rolled directly on top of its head with a sickening crunch. The block soon had a puddle of dark liquid running below it.

Some of the monsters looked back at the heavy noise from their fallen comrade, and then back at the unicorn with a bow and arrow; a loud roar echoed throughout the room as the whole group now charged in a frenzy towards her.

Rainbow shot up to the air as she heard the roar, and looked back to see the monsters were now chasing Rarity. She noticed the crushed monster beneath the stone block and the arrow sticking out of its leg, and a smile formed on her face as she equipped her new weapons and launched herself after the roaring monsters.

Rarity let lose another arrow and managed to trip another one of the creatures just as it was about to take a step, but she turned to run when she saw the monsters were about to overwhelm her. While the monsters could move very fast, they simply were no match for a grown pony on full gallop, and Rarity looked back when the sound of the raging monsters grew quieter; she looked back over her shoulder to notice Rainbow had caught on to her strategy, and the pegasus made short work of the humans as she sliced their legs with a quick swoop from behind, quickly flying away to avoid the falling blocks.

Rarity slowed her pace to a near stop and turned to face the mob behind her, I can't risk shooting Dash by accident... Let's see if Dash's... abrasiveness is rubbing off on me. "You ruffians are simply revolting. To think you would chase a Lady such as myself!" she raised a smug grin, "If only you were as fast as you are disgusting, then I would really be in trouble!" the unicorn shouted as she galloped away.

The mob roared again at the taunting pony and Rainbow snickered. Hah! Good one, Rares. She continued picking the frenzied monsters one by one, with them only noticing the swift pegasus when it was already too late, after she'd cut them down. Soon, the last of the monsters fell to the ground, a loud crunching sound resonating throughout the maze as it was crushed by its own cargo.

"That's the last of 'em, Rares! You can stop now!" Rainbow yelled as she made her way to the panting unicorn. "Awesome shooting, by the way! You got them right where it hurt!" she touched down next to her friend, extending a hoof towards her.

Rarity lifted her own hoof tiredly to meet her friend's, "*Hah*... it was a little messy... but at least they won't be a problem... *huff*... anymore."

The pair walked up to one of the fallen creatures, and watched as the puddle of pure dark blood below the block of stone started evaporating into the air in a thick, dark smoke and the rest of the monster's body along with the block itself soon followed suit.

Rarity stepped back at the sight, while Rainbow simply stared at the vanishing smoke.

“What the hay!?” the pegasus poked with her hoof at where the creature was lying seconds ago.

Rarity gulped, “Oh, my… I don’t think those… things… were even humans at all…” For better or worse... she sighed and looked at the path behind, where the other monsters had fallen, but none of them remained; only cracks on the floor where the blocks had fallen were visible, and some of her arrows were lying about. ...At least that makes getting back my arrows that much easier...

The ponies made their way back to the entrance to the second level, and Rainbow flew up to inspect the slightly cracked rune, "Did they break the rune?" she spun in the air to look down at her friend standing on the stairway below, "Oh, do you want me to carry you again?"

"Thank you, dear, but it's not that far, I should be fine as long as I concentrate a little harder. As for the rune..." The unicorn sat down and her horn came alive with magic as she tried to connect to the rune's own magical source, "...the scrolls said one can't really damage the rune physically, so it should be working..."

The rune shined a fiery red light as if to prove her point, and Rarity let out a breath, "Like so." She was about to go down to the stairs, when she noticed her friend inspecting the decorative carvings on the wall.

“What’s up with the humans in this one? Look at that! Some of them have dog heads! And look at these!" she pointed excitedly at another wall, "These dog-dudes are shooting beams at not-dog humans!”

“Maybe there’s human-dogs and we haven’t met them? Or maybe whoever did those carvings had a very active imagination…”

“I bet they made awesome comics.” Dash laughed as she went back to her friend and both of them started walking down the stairs to the lower level, with the pegasus' laughter echoing behind.

--

As the two ponies walked down the stairs to the next level, they were greeted by a larger room, with the stairs flanked by pillars and torches much like the ones at the entrance of the Sphinx.

They kept navigating without much trouble thanks to the maps and soon reached the next rune, located inside a room in the far west of the dungeon. It was a big, almost featureless room, save for four pillars standing near the center, forming a square that surrounded the rune on the floor at a distance.

"Well, if that doesn't scream 'trap' I don't know what does..." Rarity sighed as she moved carefully to inspect the pillars.

"Ten bits say they fall on whoever stands near the rune." Rainbow said from behind, looking around the room.

"Actually," Rarity pointed to the part of the pillar that faced the rune, "See these little tubes?" the small spouts were aligned in a row coming up from the ground, "It looks like they shoot something... but these tubes are different from the ones that spat fire from before..." She moved on to inspecting the ground, and after some time found a tile that was only slightly above the rest. Inspecting it further, she noticed the edges had a small gap around them, separating it from the rest of the floor.

Rarity moved to stand next to the rune, carefully avoiding any other suspicious tiles she found, and started concentrating her magic. She felt a pang on her horn as she reached for the magic on the seal, and the flow of magic was stopped abruptly.

"Well... this one is broken, Dash. I suppose the seal was damaged after all..." Rarity sighed as her horn lit up again.

"So... can you fix it?" Dash was hovering above Rarity, taking pleasure in the fact that humans apparently never thought of designing traps against fliers.

"I... believe so; I just need some time... watch my back, won't you, dear? I don't want anything taking us by surprise while I'm concentrating..." the unicorn took a deep breath and began focusing harder on the rune, trying to mend the flow of magic into it. Very well. According to the scrolls, these threads are supposed to be connected to a source of 'magical energy' running all around the sphinx itself...

Rainbow flew back to the other side of the pillars, landing to keep watch on the entrance of the room. Minutes passed by in silence except for the random grunt or squeak from Rarity as she worked on the rune, and Dash looked back at the unicorn, who had her head low in concentration in the middle of the room, her horn shining with a light blue aura just above the rune.

Look at that. 'I'm just a fashionista' she says. Good thing I'm not a unicorn, though, that looks boring. The pegasus yawned and looked back at the doorway just in time to catch a small shadow passing quickly from one side of the entrance to the other.

That can't be good. Dash got to the air and hovered directly in the middle of the entrance, just above the ground.

Well, whatever's out there will have to go through me to get to Rares. She snorted and narrowed her eyes, preparing for anything to suddenly jump at her.

The shadow appeared again to her right, and a small shuffling sound alerted her to another figure on her left, and she flew up higher instinctively to get a better look of her new company. Snarling below her were two strange dogs, only a little bigger than Applejack's Winona, but their fur was a thick black and they were thin to the point of looking emaciated. Their heads and faces had much sharper edges, along with their teeth, and they had thin, long eyes glowing a deep, bright red, all in all giving them a completely opposite look from the amiable farm collie.

One of the creatures leaped at her with its huge maw open, revealing a set fangs even larger and more intimidating than she had expected; Dash managed to fly higher in the air, and the sound of a snarl from behind alerted her to go even higher up. She looked down at the vicious creatures as she reached for her katars, while the dogs started circling below her and tried jumping at her, but never quite reaching the airborne pegasus.

She swept down at one of the dogs with her weapons at the ready, but it quickly moved out of the way, only for the other dog to attack her from behind immediately after; Dash tried to fly up again, but she was too late and the monstrous dog now had its maw clamped firmly to her leg.

"Augh!" Dash swore out loud at the pain on her leg, and flew up to avoid another attack from the second monster, the extra weight making her wings burn from exertion. "Let go of my leg, stupid dog!" she tried shaking her leg to get rid of the vicious dog, but the harsh movement only made the dog tighten its bite, and the sharp teeth rent more of her flesh before the dog finally let go, falling to the ground without an injury.

The stinging on her leg was hard to ignore, but Rainbow focused on the snarling beasts licking their lips below. I can't take them both at the same time! Whenever I go for one, the other just uses it as a distraction and jumps me from... behind...

Dash gulped and took a deep breath; she readied her weapons for another strike and dove directly at one of the dogs. Just as the dog leaped away to avoid her, she spun in the air to face the opposite direction, and kicked at the wind behind her, launching herself at the dog that was now leaping at her in mid-air. The combined speed of the pegasus' flight and the momentum of the dog's own jump created an impact strong enough to send one of Dash's katars flying away, but the remaining blade cleaved right through the surprised creature, which simply landed unmoving on the ground, almost cut in half.

Rainbow flinched at the feeling of the hot blood of another creature splashing on her coat. Wow... that... worked way better than I thought it would... and I almost tore that fleabag in half...

Her reverie was interrupted by a loud howl from behind her, and Dash turned to see the other creature was now snarling and barking viciously at her, only for a blur to strike it suddenly on the side of its head, and it fell to the ground, unmoving.

"Dash! Are you okay!?"

Rainbow turned to look at Rarity running towards her, the unicorn's face matched her panicked voice.

"I heard some awful noises and ran over right away!" Rarity stopped just below her friend, and gasped at the deep gashes on the pegasus' leg, which now had a dark red trail of blood trickling town to her hoof and dripping onto the ground.

"Oh. Hey, Rares. Don't worry; I had it under control." Dash landed to pick her katar that was laying on the floor, flinching as her back leg touched the ground. She casually lifted it to avoid putting more pressure on it, only for the increased weight to send a pang of pain through her left foreleg, causing her to nearly trip to the ground, only to be caught by Rarity's magic as she moved to stand beside her.

"I, uh... I think I hurt my wrist." Ugh. Dumb weapons. The old man did warn me, I guess...

"Your wrist!? Just look at your leg! Hold on, let me get you a potion!" Rarity opened her pouch and produced a nearly finished red potion for her friend. "Please tell me if you need some more, okay?"

"Thanks." Dash drank the last of the potion and giggled at the feeling of her hind leg being mended.
"Good as new!" she trotted in place, only feeling a slight pang where the wound was before, along with a lessened pain on her wrist. I hope that I didn't make a face at that or Rarity won't stop bothering me about it for the rest of the day...

"...Very well, dear. I'm glad you are feeling better." Rarity smiled before letting out a breath. Seriously, such a child some times. Still...

"So, you done with that rune?" Rainbow asked as she flexed her wrist.

"It was... a strange experience, but yes. I fixed it." The unicorn sat down and extended a foreleg towards her friend, "Here, let me see that."

"Strange?" Dash raised an eyebrow and relaxed as she let her friend work on her joint.

"Well, I had to reconnect it to the source of its power deep inside the sphinx... but I felt something else tapping into that energy as I worked, I think; something other than the runes, I mean." Rarity shuddered, sending tremors down her friend's hoof, "It wasn't a nice feeling either... I think there really may be something deep underground trying to break the seal, Dash, and it may have some powerful magic."

"Powerful as in... Blank-Eyes-Floating-Twilight powerful, or Great and Powerful Trixie powerful?" Dash looked at her friend with a blank expression.

Rarity giggled at her friend's comparison, but quickly sobered up. "Seriously, though; I can't tell. I just know that there is something down there that can use magic and we should be prepared."

Rainbow saluted with her other hoof, sitting straight to keep her balance, "I'll keep an eye out, boss!"

Rarity rolled her eyes, "That will be all, Danger Dash." she teased with a sly smile and a wink as she carefully set her friend's hoof down and moved on.

Rainbow simply took to the air behind her friend, mumbling through blushing cheeks and a silly smile.

--

The team continued north without incidents, although sudden shuffling noises or frightened yelps coming from the darkness would startle them, and more than once one of the ponies would see something moving in the darkness away from them, hiding in the shadows.

After walking in silence for some time, they were at the second rune of the level, placed at the foot of a tomb in a pedestal and surrounded by four bright torches on each corner. There were black, burnt bones and skulls surrounding the tomb, and both ponies looked nervously at each other.

"So," Rainbow landed next to Rarity, "Definitely traps. And nasty ones if they have stuff like that lying around..."

"Why would normal humans come here, though? This isn't exactly a tourist hotspot." Rarity shuddered.

"Um, duh? Have you ever heard of adventure?" Dash deadpanned, "Besides, everypony knows ancient tombs are filled with treasure and stuff."

"But I haven't felt a single gemstone since we got here." Rarity flashed her horn, and her mouth dropped to the floor as an ornate gold necklace with a turquoise pendant shined from inside the tomb. "Oh, my..." her eyes were sparkling as she stared at the treasure.

Dash laughed as she prodded the unicorn with a hoof to break her away from her fascination. "Told ya."

Rarity blinked and shook her head to wake up from her reverie. She started inspecting the room thoroughly for any traps, the shiny jewelry giving her enough incentive to work as fast and efficiently as she could.

"Well, the... remains... look charred, so maybe it has something to do with the torches. There is no way normal fire would stay floating like that." She looked at the flames hovering above the torches and concentrated her magic, but couldn't affect the flames.

"Wait here, Dash; I have to take a closer look."

She inspected the floor around the pedestal, and carefully moved closer to look at the torches. Upon further inspection, she noticed a fine line going down the side of the rods and into the ground, then back into the tomb's cover.

Hmm... She prodded the line with a hoof, and dropped to the floor as a long flame shot directly above her, where one would've stood if they had tried to remove the cover of the tomb.

"Whoa! Rares, are you okay!?" Rainbow was already flying to her friend's side, but she stopped at a gesture from Rarity's hoof.

"I'm fine!" the unicorn said, only slightly shaking as she got up, "... just... stay over there, I'm going to try something..."

Rarity's horn flared as she closed her eyes in concentration; she noticed the thin line on the torch was filled with a faint trace of magic, and confirmed her suspicions about the flame floating above the torch being completely made out of magic. She traced the energy flow down to a rune on the inside of the tomb, and tried tapping into it with her own power.

"Huh..." She felt the rune's energy going out in three other directions, but it didn't seem like this rune was connected to the deeper Sphinx like the sealing runes from before. "Alright, Rainbow, I will to try to... disarm the fire trap, so be prepared for anything."

"O-okay." Rainbow Dash simply nodded as she watched her friend work, her ears perked up in anticipation.

Shouldn't be that hard... just do the opposite of what I did when fixing the other one... Rarity's horn flared with a stronger light as she started working on the magical energies inside. Then... instead we take a single tendril and tear it away from the core... She looked up to see the flame above her grew dimmer, and her horn flashed even harder as she tore the workings of the rune inside the tomb, until all the torches were extinguished.

"Okay, Dash, I'm removing the cover... be ready to catch me in case it sends me flying away or something." Rarity stuck out her tongue slightly as she concentrated.

"Wait, what!?" Rainbow was about to tackle her friend away from the tomb, but the tomb's cover was suddenly enveloped by a light blue aura, and it slid off slowly into the ground.

Rarity jumped up to the pedestal, her eyes sparkling until she saw the interior of the tomb, and she let out a loud scream, "Aieeeeeeeeeee! Gross, gross, gross!"

Rainbow flew over to see what her friend was yelling about: an ancient human skeleton lied there, with the ornate golden necklace around its neck bone.

"Uh... what's the big deal?"

"What's the big deal? What's the big deal!?" Rarity jumped off the tomb and started fussing all over herself, dusting herself off at random spots, "'The big deal' is that there is a dead human in there! Who knows what sort of horrible disease I could get just from standing near it!"

"Eh. It probably just died from age or something. Besides, didn't you want this necklace thingie?" Dash moved a hoof to grab the necklace, but she felt her friend's magic tugging at her tail again, and sighed.

"Now what?"

"We can't simply start robbing the dead; it's just wrong! ...not to mention gross." Rarity sighed and moved to inspect the rune for the actual seal. "All that work for nothing." she grumbled.

"What do you mean? Daring Do does that all the time! It's not stealing; it's preserving arch-logical treasures!" Dash flew down to Rarity and almost bumped muzzles with her, "It's not like they need it, and the stuff on the temples can always go to a museum or something, instead of staying in some boring tomb sealed away forever." She landed and placed an arm on her friend's withers, "Besides, you're not seriously going to waste all that cool trap-disarming job you just did, are you?"

"Cool?" Rarity looked at her friend with a raised eyebrow.

"Are you kidding? That was awesome! You were like some sort of super secret agent disarming that thing!" Dash threw her free arm up in the air to emphasize the deal, while she wrapped the arm around Rarity's withers harder.

"W-well... It was kind of fun... and it would be such a shame to have nothing to show for it..." Rarity looked back at the tomb and frowned, "But I don't know how I would feel if somepony took my things after I was dead..."

"Pff, you'd be dead; you wouldn't care!" Dash continued her pitch, "Besides, do you think the owner would want to let their treasure gathering dust and for nopony to ever see it again? Just think about it! What if one of your dresses were lost forever in some creepy dungeon, and someone found it after you were gone? Wouldn't you like it better if they took it back into the world for ponies everywhere to... whatwastheword... uh, marvel at it again?"

Rarity sighed, "Well... when you put it like that... I guess I can make the owner proud by letting everypony see such a beautiful gem along with little old me..." She carefully removed the necklace from the skeleton and levitated it towards her, and after admiring it for a few more seconds, she stashed it in one of her cloak's pockets, Well, that's strange. It looked like it would be heavier, but it barely tugs down the cloak... must be the thieves' ingenuity, I suppose; I will have to ask them about their designs...

Rainbow grinned as she let go of her friend, "Besides, I bet it'll look great on you!"

Rarity's face got redder and she forced a giggle, "Why, I never took you for a flatterer, Rainbow Dash!" The unicorn looked away to hide her blush, "Still, ah, thank you, darling. At the very least I shall try."

The flustered unicorn hastily made her way to the rune at the foot of the tomb. "Now, back to the task at hand..." she pointed her horn towards the rune and it soon was enveloped on her magical aura, only to harshly stop as she tried to tap onto it's magical energy.

"Well, I will have to fix this one, too..." Rarity sighed and closed her eyes tight in concentration, her horn giving a faint glow.

"I'll go keep an eye out for trouble, then." Rainbow flew to the entrance of the tomb room with a satisfied smile on her face as she looked back at the busy unicorn. Adventure - 1; Fussiness - 0

--

"Let's see..." Rarity looked over her map after fixing the rune, "Ugh. It says the rest of the runes are on the other end of the level..."

"Aw, man!" Dash groaned, "Couldn't they just put like a really big rune instead of so many annoying ones all over the place?"

The pair moved on throughout the maze in relative peace; other than more annoying bats and noises in the dark, the rest of the floor was uneventful and the ponies made their way to the rest of the runes without trouble. The traps protecting the runes were easily avoided by Rarity's scrutiny, and the runes themselves were actually intact and working properly.

After some time, they finally made their way to the entrance to the third level: a huge room with stairs going down in the middle into a big, ornate doorway.

The room was mostly dark except for the light blue glow coming from Rarity's horn, but as soon as the ponies touched the first step on the stairway, torches on the opposite ends of the room started coming alive, completely illuminating the room.

"Whoa..."

"Oh, my..."

Both ponies looked at the suddenly lit room with mouths agape.

The walls were filled with various carvings, many of them depicting rows of intimidating-looking humans with swords at the ready, facing directly into the room, looking like an army about to stomp through the walls, ready to attack any intruders.

The doorway had a big, ornate lintel above it, where the ponies could recognize the last rune for this level, except the stone was slightly cracked, and they could see scratches all over the structure as they approached.

"I guess those guys from before came from down here, huh?" Rainbow was hovering in front of the rune, looking at the various cracks and scratches.

"But that makes no sense. Damaging the runes physically isn't supposed to do anything... other than making it harder to find the actual places where the seal was cast..." Rarity concentrated her magic and felt another pang at the feedback as she checked the rune. "Ow!"

"You okay, Rares?" Rainbow flew down to her friend.

"Yes... it's just that this one needs fixing as well." Rarity sighed as she rubbed her forehead around her horn. "Well, I suppose I might as well get started..." her horn flared, but a screeching sound coming from beyond the portal startled the unicorn.

"Watch out!" Rainbow flew in front of the unicorn, standing between her and the portal.

A cloud of large, red bats came swarming from the doorway and started flying in circles above the ponies, some sweeping down dangerously close in attempts to bite them. Dash immediately readied her weapons and Rarity brought out her bow.

"C-careful, Dash! Those things look even worse than the ones form before!" Rarity tried shooting at the bats, but when one of them flew near her face, a knot formed on her throat and an image of a bat stuck on her neck, draining her blood flashed on her mind.
"NO!" she gave out a shriek and instantly dropped to the ground, her bow falling beside her as panic started taking over. "Aah! Get away! Please!" she covered her head with her hooves as tears formed on her eyes.

Rainbow looked down at her panicked friend, and shot up to the air; only flinching slightly at the pain from her earlier wound. The swarm of bats was thick enough that she managed to slice through some of them simply by flying straight up while holding her weapons in front of her; she emerged from the cloud of bats and immediately turned around to launch herself at the monsters circling below, ready to slash at anything caught in her way, but she was surprised when the bats managed to not only get out of the way in time, but some even started spitting a black substance at her face. Dash managed to dodge most of the attacks with her quick reflexes, but the sudden moves sent a jolt of pain from the wound on her leg, making her flinch, and a burning pain settled on her left eye as the viscous substance hit her face; she felt the dark muck settling on her eye, completely blinding it, and her vision went blurry as she rubbed her eyes.

"Rainbow Dash! Help me!"

Rarity screamed from below and looked up to her friend, who was now being surrounded by the bats as she tried in vain to rub the strange substance off her face.

“Dash! Duck!”

The bats launched themselves at the pegasus, but they only hit a rainbow blur as the mare managed to move out of the way in time.

"Hang in there, Dash! Keep dodging!" the unicorn said frantically as the bats chased after her friend. Oh, no, no, no! I have to do something!

Rarity got up on shaky hooves and tried aiming her at the bats with her bow. They are moving too fast for me to hit , and I can't even stop this blasted bow from shaking! Oh, there's just too many of them! Come on, Rarity, think! Dash needs you!

She looked around the room hoping to find something else she could use against the bats, and noticed the flames floating above the torches. As she ran towards the torches, the sound of the bats screeching above sent a chill down her spine every time and her neck tensed up whenever a flap of wings sounded anywhere nearby, only to break out of it whenever Rainbow screamed as she tried to fight back.

You can do this, Rarity... she needs you right now. Just breathe. her horn flared as she focused on the magic coming from the flames, tracing down the magical energy feeding them on the wall just below the ledge the torches stood at. She focused on the lines feeding the energy to the torches, and concentrated some of her own magic on it, and watched as the flames above grew with her power.

Oh, please work! “Dash! Fly to the torches over here and get ready to duck!” Rarity waved her forelegs to get her friend’s attention.

Rainbow looked back at the sound of Rarity’s voice and saw a white blur moving below a row of blurry flames. She instantly changed directions and charged towards them, the bats’ constant screeching following just behind her.

Rarity took a deep breath as her friend approached, and her horn flared with an intense blue light.

“Now!” she yelled with all her strength as she focused all of her magic onto the torches.

Rainbow dropped to the ground immediately, already expecting her friend’s command; she barely managed to break her fall by rolling as she felt a heat wave pass just above her briefly before she hit the wall. The frenzied swarm of bats didn't expect the sudden attack, and flew straight into a barrage of fire, which filled the whole room with a hot, blinding light from the violent flames, combined with deafening screeches from the burning beasts.

Rarity fell to the ground, exhausted from using up all her magic. Oh, How I wish we had Twilight with us right now... She drowsily glanced ahead to see the bats dropping like flies a short distance in front of her; some were screeching from the pain, but they fell silent as the fire consumed them. Too tired to even be revolted by the sight, she tried looking back to check on her friend.

Dash’s head was still spinning; between the emergency landing and the partial blindness from the muck, she was barely able to get up on shaky legs. She hit her head with a hoof to stop the world from moving, and finally managed to rub the blinding slime off her face. A faint scent of burnt hair lingered in the air, and she looked back to notice her singed tail, which still had a little smoke coming out from the dying embers. Rainbow brought her tail to her mouth, and chomped on the burnt edge to stop the smoke.

"Rares? You okay?" she asked out loud as she searched for her friend.

"Over here..." came the tired voice from Rarity just a few feet to her right.

Rainbow walked next to the lying unicorn, but the cracking sound of fire caught her attention, and she looked back at the multitude of bats being consumed by the fire. "That's what you get..." she grimaced.

Rarity sighed below her, "It really does become easier, does it not...?"

Rainbow's ears perked up and she looked back at her friend with a confused look, "Huh? What're you talking about?"

Rarity looked down, "...all this... killing. It gets easier..." she sighed. "I remember when I had to kill that bat from the pyramid; I nearly lost my lunch at having to watch it burning away... even if it had tried to kill me instead." she looked back at the burning bats and sighed, "And now, I find that I do not even care about any of these burning away... I'm actually glad they are gone..."

Dash flinched and her ears fell flat against her skull as she remembered the feeling of the dog's blood splashing against her fur, and how it looked lying on the floor, unmoving. "...You're just tired, Rares. You had to use a lot of magic for that stunt you just pulled out!" she tried to sound upbeat, but there was still hesitance in her voice.

Rarity closed her eyes, "... maybe..."

"You just need a break... come on, I'll take us somewhere else." Dash picked her friend up by her stomach, and flew them up to a darker corner of the room, just behind the portal to the lower level.

Rarity curled up into a ball, covering her face with her tail as she tried to regain her energies, while Rainbow sat next to her, deep in thought.

After a few minutes of complete silence, Dash finally moved and looked back at Rarity.

"...You did it to help me, though," she blurted out, "Plus, it's not like they gave us a chance to talk or anything." Rainbow got down to nuzzle her friend, "And I'm glad you got rid of them, so... thanks for helping me." She flinched when she noticed the small trails of tears going down the unicorn's cheeks.

"I'm sorry..." Rarity looked up through watered eyes, "It's just that... this is all becoming just too much for me..." she sighed, "And I can tell that we will have to do so much more before we finally go back home..."

Rainbow sighed and leaned her head down on her friend's back, "You know, I was pretty freaked out when I... cut through one of those dogs back when you were fixing that rune... I could feel as if Fluttershy was staring behind me, all disappointed..." She gulped and shifted her weight, "But when the bats showed up just now, I got my katars right away, and didn't even think twice about cutting them down... but I think I know why."

Rarity shifted below her friend as she felt the pegasus shuffling above her.

"As soon as they came out, I remembered the blood stain on your neck and how you said that bat had almost killed you..." Dash snorted, "I wasn't going to let them anywhere near you. I'd rather kill a thousand of those things than risk losing you, Rares." her tone was angry, and Rarity could feel her trembling above.

Rarity fell silent as she thought on her friend's words, though she could feel a little warmth bubbling up inside her from her friend's dedication.

She thought back at seeing the terrifying bats closing in on Dash, their sharp fangs bared at the distracted pegasus and the desperation she felt at being unable to help her friend, plus the anger at the bats for attacking them without reason. She remembered the gash on the pegasus' leg from her fight with the dogs and the guilt she felt from leaving her friend to deal with those beasts by herself, and then the relief she felt when her arrow hit the awful dog on the head and it simply fell to the ground...

Rarity broke from her reverie as she felt Dash getting back up.

"Sorry, I... just wanted to tell you that." Rainbow started walking away, "I'll go keep an eye out in case anything else comes up from there."

"Wait!" Rarity tried getting up, but she only managed to lift her head, "I... We shouldn't split up." she mumbled as she tried to come up with an escuse, "Besides... I... could use the company."

Rainbow let out a breath she was holding, and smiled at her friend. "S-sure! I mean, yeah, alright." She was practically skipping back to her friend, and sat down next to her when she arrived.

"Thank you, Rainbow Dash..." Rarity nuzzled her friend's leg, and then looked back down to her own hooves, and mumbled, "I... I'm glad those monsters didn't hurt you either. And sorry about your tail..."

"Heh. Don't worry about it." Dash carefully patted her friend's head, "You just rest up, Rares. I'll be right here in case anything happens."

Rarity felt at ease as her friend's gentle pats turned into a soft hoof resting on her head, gently petting her mane from time to time, and she drifted off into a peaceful slumber...

Dash couldn't keep a satisfied smile off her face as she watched the snoozing unicorn below her, but she adopted a more serious expression as her thoughts turned to the battle behind them. I just charged in without thinking again, and look what that got me... I could've gotten both of us killed by those things. She really did save my tail back there.

The pegasus sighed and looked down at her weapons. She's right, too... who knows what else we're gonna have to fight until we're finally back home with the others... I'll have to get better. I won't let you down again, Rares; I'll have to get better at all this fighting so you won't even have to worry about it anymore. I'll make sure you won't have to kill anything ever again.

The minutes passed away, until a shuffling at her side alerted a brooding Rainbow Dash of her friend's awakening, and the pegasus moved to help her getting up.

"Slept well?"

Rarity yawned, "Oh, I'm sorry, darling. I only meant to rest my eyes for a few seconds... but I guess I got too comfortable." She giggled through a blush as she got up. "For how long was I out?"

Rainbow grinned, "Don't worry about it, It hasn't been more than an hour, I think. Besides, after those fireworks, I thought you'd be out for a day or something." She grinned as she playfully punched the unicorn on the shoulder, "That was pretty neat, by the way."

Rarity forced a cough and rubbed her shoulder with a hoof, "Aheheh. Why, thank you, dear." She started walking back to the doorway, "We should get back to fixing those runes; the sooner we're out of this place, the better.”

Dash saluted, and picked her friend to fly them back in front of the portal. They both noticed the charred spots on the ground and nodded silently at each other, determination shining in their eyes.

"I'll watch your back, Rares; you do your thing." Rainbow flew to stand directly in the middle of the doorway, watching back and forth between the stairs below and Rarity.

"Thank you, Dash." Rarity focused her horn, and traced back the magic on the depths of the dungeon. The fatigue from before was gone, and she wondered if she really hadn't fallen asleep for far longer than her friend suggested. Then again, maybe Rainbow's talk helped me more than I thought...

A few minutes passed, and Rainbow hadn't seen or heard anything strange, until a fiery flash from Rarity's direction caught her attention, and she turned to look at the unicorn walking towards her.

"Well, that one is fixed; even if the stonework will need some restoration now..." Rarity walked to stand next to Rainbow.

"Eh. Not our problem." Dash shrugged, "I guess it's off to the third level now, huh?"

"Indeed." Rarity walked past Dash and brushed her tail slightly through her friend's body as she passed, "Let's go, Daring Dash." she looked back and winked at her friend.

Dash was stunned at the touch and the wink, and she could feel her face burning up. She stood there stupefied until she noticed Rarity had gone ahead and was almost out of sight.

"Hey, wait up!" the pegasus shot after her friend with a smile on her face.

--

After passing through the portal, the ponies entered a long corridor and the ambience from the earlier floors was gone; the lighting was dimmer, and though there were many torches, only few and far in-between were lit. The floor and walls had random scorch marks all over them, and the whole level was slightly sloping downward.

Rarity hesitated, and turned to look at the entrance behind them. She could see how its frames were cracked and slashed; like something had tried to destroy the entrance but didn’t finish the job.

“More traps?” Rainbow guessed as she was looking around them, trying to find any tubes or holes that would spit fire at them.

“Maybe… although I cannot see any suspicious-looking tiles…” Rarity concentrated and her horn flared out in a light blue aura, “…and I don’t feel any energy sources for traps nearby…” Her horn stopped shining, and she looked back at the hovering pegasus, “Let’s just watch our step, shall we?”

The ponies slowly moved down the long corridor, and the slight incline was making Rarity walk a little faster than she wanted, while putting more pressure on her front legs. The echoing hoofsteps of the unicorn and the slight flapping of Dash’s wings were the only sounds around them, and the light of the flames danced on the walls, projecting long shadows from the different carvings on them.

The pair was so enthralled that Rarity didn't notice a step in front of her, and tumbled down for a short distance, only to stop just in front of a small pit where her front hooves were left dangling on its edge.

As the dizziness from the fall left her, Rarity looked up to see a finely polished statue standing tall in the pit, reaching perfectly up to the ceiling. It was a statue exactly like the ones guarding the gate on the desert, down to the elaborate hat and the ornate emblems on each hand; the only difference being the shining white limestone was in a much better condition, and the light of the four torches surrounding it gave it a grand, yet much more intimidating look.

"Hey, you okay?" Rainbow landed next to her fallen friend, and offered a hoof to help her up.

"Thank you, darling." Rarity took the hoof, but couldn't look away from the statue as her horn came to life; revealing two huge red gems where the statue's eyes would be. "Oh, my..." She could feel her mouth reaching for the floor.

"Hey, now we’re talking!” Rainbow flew up to get a better look at the jewels, which were just about the size of her hooves. She was reaching for the gems when an increasingly familiar tug on her tail made her look down.

“Hang on, Dash. Something like this is sure to be trapped.” Rarity was looking at the map, “Besides; there's supposed to be a rune over here…” She bit her lower lip as she looked back at the sparkling rubies, “Oh, but they sure do look lovely…” The unicorn whipped her head away in a dramatic gesture and walked a few steps away from the statue, “No! It is simply too risky, Rarity!"

Only for her to immediately look back with sparkling eyes, "Oh, but they are simply divine, Rarity!"

"No! I must resist!" she lifted a leg to her forehead and turned away again, shifting back and forth between prudence and desire.

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes at the one-pony show below, and brought her attention back to the rubies. She looked to her sides and licked her lips in concentration as she slowly inched closer to the gems...

It's not like any of the traps so far were any problem for me, I'll just take the gems and dash off. Easy peasy... Dash let out a breath and quickly removed the gems from the eye sockets. Immediately after, a rumbling sound from above startled her, but she couldn't look up fast enough and she felt several smooth things slipping and slithering all over her body, with one of the things settling on her shoulder.

"Snakes!" Rarity shouted from below.

Rainbow felt a prick on the back of her neck, and quickly spun on the air to shake off her unwanted passenger. As she looked below, the previously empty pit was now filled with hissing snakes of different colors; all of them angrily looking up and snapping at the pegasus that disturbed them.

A sudden dizzy spell overcame Dash, and she was quickly barreling down into the pit, the gems clenched to her chest.

"Rainbow Dash!" Rarity's horn flared and her friend was soon enveloped in the unicorn's magical aura, floating above the pit and towards her.

"Ugh... I don't feel so good..." Rainbow groaned.

The pegasus was sweating and grunting as she was gently lowered to the ground, and she wouldn't stop rubbing her neck.

"What’s wrong!? Let me see!" Rarity removed the cyan hoof on Dash's neck to take a better look at her friend's injury. The shriek she gave when she noticed the purple spot on her friend's neck echoed throughout the whole corridor.

"Oh no, no, no!" Rarity fidgeted next to her poisoned friend and was on the brink of a panic attack.

"I'm... fine..." Rainbow struggled to get up and nearly threw up from the effort; the nausea from the poison was unbearable, and a sudden attack of vertigo overcame her, bringing her hard to the floor.

Rarity snapped out of her panic at the sound of her friend hitting the ground, and quickly moved next to her, placing her horn directly above the snake's bite.

Think, Rarity, think! If that oaf could cure her, surely you can as well! She took a deep breath and closed her eyes, deep in concentration. Remember how he did it… remember the scroll; the poison is just… filth… inside her body, and I have to clean it…

The unicorn’s horn started emitting a soft blue light that was lost in Rainbow’s cyan fur, and soon the purple on the wounds lessened, until it completely vanished into the mare’s original color.

The soothing warmth on Dash’s neck helped clear her mind, and the pegasus stopped grunting as the breathing on her neck brought a pleasant tingling rush through her spine. Rainbow got up on shaky legs, and turned to face her friend, though she looked down to hide her blushing face.

“Uh... thanks, Rares.” She looked up to see Rarity's almost seething expression on her face and a white hoof raised in the air. Rainbow flinched as her friend moved towards her, and was surprised by a rushed hug.

"Are you trying to get yourself killed!?" Rarity sobbed on her friend's shoulder, "Do you have any idea how lucky you are that I managed to copy that detoxifying spell!?"

"Sorry..." Rainbow looked down, ashamed.

"What were you thinking!?" Rarity broke the hug and glared at her friend through misty eyes.

"Uh..." Dash shifted her weight and looked down to her hooves. She sheepishly lifted one of the gems for Rarity to see, "I got you these?" She didn't dare test her luck by giving her distraught friend a smile.

Rarity was stunned at seeing the ruby up close; she could see her face reflected on the many clean, scarlet facets of the gem, and as she kept gazing into the clear stone, she noticed Dash's uneasiness on the other side of it, and she let out a long sigh.

"That's... very sweet of you, Dash." She lifted the gems with her magic, and moved closer to the crestfallen pegasus, planting a soft kiss on her cheek. "Just... please, do be more careful..."

Rainbow's wings flared and she flinched at the contact. She looked up to see Rarity turning away and putting the gems into her cloak as she trotted towards the pit with the snakes.

"At least they won't be coming up anytime soon..." The unicorn scrunched her face in disgust at the squirming reptiles below, while many of them hissed at her on sight. "It really does seem that whoever made these traps didn't design them with someone who could fly in mind..." Rarity shuddered at the image of being stuck down there with the angry snakes.

"Be that as it may... I think I found the rune." the unicorn pointed at the symbols on the statue's stomach as her horn flashed, "Make sure the snakes don't spring at me or anything, will you, dear?"

Rainbow was still recovering from the shock of Rarity's kiss, and she was rubbing the spot on her cheek with a hoof. "Wha? Oh!" she flew next to the unicorn, but avoided eye contact by staying in the air, "You got it!" Dash glared down at the hissing snakes, some of them glaring right back at her. She blew a raspberry at them, which only provoked some to snap at the air below her, much to the pegasus' amusement.

Too bad you can't fly, huh, scaly? Not even your lame poison can bring The Dash down when I got my gal Rares here to watch my back! She was taunting at the impotent snakes below, which only increased their hissing and snapping.

"Ahem."

Rainbow looked down to see Rarity giving her an unamused glare.

"Ah-heheh. Sorry." She smiled nervously and landed next to her disgruntled friend, who simply sighed as she went back to concentrating on the rune. A few seconds later, the rune glowed a fiery red.

"Well, this one was working, at least..." Rarity got up and walked away from the pit, checking on the map as she went. "Let's go, Dash. The map says we passed a turn awhile back..."

---

The pair backtracked and soon found the way down another corridor. The passage was smaller, with the walls on each side so close together that the two ponies could just barely walk side by side, and the ceiling was lower too; though not low enough to keep the fluttering pegasus from trying to fly. The narrow path was also completely devoid of torches, keeping the ponies from seeing more than a few paces in.

“Well, that looks ominous enough…” Rarity flared her horn and a soft blue light illuminated the path in front of them, “Dash, stay in the air and stay close…”

The pegasus saluted and hovered just behind her friend, “I got your back.”

Rarity focused her light and attention to inspect every inch of the path ahead, and slowly walked on. She noticed that some of the walls had holes on them, some aligned in rows down from the ceiling, and some bigger ones simply all over the place. She stuck her head to the ground and focused the light of her horn on it, causing some of the more elevated pressure plates to cast small shadows ahead; the path was filled with them, to the point that the unicorn would have to nearly hopscotch through with precision she didn’t think she could manage.

She took a few steps back and bumped into a hoof of the airborne pegasus, “Dash… do you think you can carry me through? This place is completely filled with traps.” she said with an anxious voice.

Rainbow simply flew back to build up speed, and whisked Rarity off the ground. The unicorn yelped as she was carried off at high speeds, and she could feel her hooves slightly dragging before takeoff, which resulted in iron spikes coming out of the walls just as they passed, nearly impaling her tail. Flashes of fire streaked behind them, and Rarity moved to wrap her forelegs around Dash’s neck to look back; she swore she could see a giant blade swinging through the walls.

“Hang on, we're almost through!” Rainbow shouted as the light at the end of the tunnel grew bigger and bigger, and they soon escaped the deadly passage.

They exited into a wider corridor, and almost crashed into a wall behind an elevated platform surrounded by four pillars; Rainbow only barely managed to turn around one of the pillars in time to avoid crashing.

“Whew!” Rainbow touched down in front of the stairs going up to the platform, gently trying to pry a terrified Rarity off her. “Uh, you can let go now, Rares.” she struggled, and gasped for air as the unicorn finally let go.

“Are you insane!?” Rarity shrieked, making her ‘savior’ cringe and cover her ears. “I almost lost my tail back there!”

Insanely awesome, maybe. “Oh, we were fine; I had it all perfectly planned.” Rainbow bragged as she rubbed her ears to stop them from ringing.

“You could at least warn me when you’re going to sweep me off like that!”

“There was no time.” Dash falsely justified, “Besides, you can’t tell me that wasn’t fun.” she put on a cocky smile.

"Ugh!" Rarity groaned and walked up the stairs, "Seriously, Rainbow Dash! Your silly games are going to get us in a lot of trouble one of these days!"

“C’mon, Rares, you know I wouldn’t let you down.” Dash fluttered up the platform.

Rarity grumbled as she inspected the rune on the center of the platform, and lied down in front of it. “One would think that after nearly dying twice she’d be more careful…” she mumbled to herself.

---

The rune had been broken, and the pair lingered on the platform for a while until it was fixed. As they moved on down the maze, they were surprised by how deserted the level was compared to the others; they hadn't found any creatures other than the snakes at the beginning, and there were no traps to be seen, though they suspected the earlier tunnel had enough death traps to make it hard for anything to get food down there.

The pair found two more of the runes without problem, other than a few wrong turns on the maze. The runes were both inactive, but free of traps and Rarity was able to fix them after some time, though the unicorn’s frustration at her friend’s constant foolhardiness ended up with them marching in silence.

They soon reached a new narrow tunnel, which looked exactly like the one with the death traps before, and Rarity gulped as she lit her horn to look for traps, while Dash simply stood back.

Rarity twisted her face in frustration as she noticed many holes on the walls and ceiling, and frowned at the pressure plates on the ground. Maybe I can disable the mechanisms with my magic like the scrolls said… but it might take some time. What if I accidentally activate them or break something and block off the tunnel? She fidgeted on the spot as she weighted her options, and ended up sighing as she walked back towards Rainbow Dash, giving her a concerned look, “Just please be more careful this time, dear.”

“Relax; I got this.” the grinning pegasus said as she backed up.

“I mean it. I don’t want you getting yourself killed because of me.” Rarity said in a sad voice, making Dash flinch.

"C'mon, Rares, you're still beating yourself over that?" Rainbow rubbed the back of her head while looking away.

"Over that?" the unicorn stomped towards her friend, "You nearly died -twice- because of my careless attitude already!" She turned back to look at the tunnel, "Do you have any idea what could happen if something goes wrong with the traps and we become trapped inside this awful place, or what if we trigger some trap we can't escape from!?" Rarity looked back at Rainbow, who was now on the ground and looking down at her hooves, trying to escape her friend's lashing. "Don't you want to get out of here and go back to Equestria? What of all your dreams and your goal to become a Wonderbolt? All of it would be gone forever in an instant!"

"Uh, I..." Rainbow didn't dare look at the irate unicorn to the face, and simply fidgeted on her hooves.

"Never mind, Rainbow Dash. I'll deal with the traps, though it may take a while." Rarity walked towards the tunnel, and got down on the floor. Her horn was soon surrounded by a soft blue aura that illuminated further into the tunnel. Very well, then... let's try reaching below the plates. It can't be that hard...

Ouch. Rainbow looked up at her friend working on the traps, the power of the guilt-trip running deep inside her, Geez, why'd she even say it's her fault? I'm the one messing everything up. She sighed and started walking up to her friend, All right, Rainbow Dash. Time to pony up.

"Um, Rares?" she was about to poke the unicorn lying on the ground, but thought better of it at the last second. "Uh... I'm really sorry about making you worry so much and, uh, I promise I'll be more careful from now on." She flinched as Rarity let out a sigh, and stood up to face her.

"It's not about making me worry, Rainbow Dash. I absolutely wouldn't forgive myself if you got hurt again because of me."

"But it isn't even your fault! I'm the one doing what I do because I want to!" Rainbow flapped her wings impatiently.

Rarity walked closer to her friends, so their muzzles were almost touching, "And I'm the one getting you into those positions in the first place!" I bet this could all have been avoided if I had been more careful back when we were using the elements!

Rainbow flared her wings and pressed her snout onto Rarity's, "So I should just go and be boring because you don't even care about what I want to do just because it might be dangerous!?"

"That is not what I'm saying at all!" Rarity groaned as she walked away from the pegasus, only for her to put a hoof on her back, turning her over to face her again.

"Then what is it!?"

"Look, it's just... uh, I mean..." Rarity looked down at her hooves. "Do you really want to risk everything just because of me?" she looked up at the confused pegasus with sad eyes, "I mean, you just got stuck with me without a choice, and I know I can be much too, ah... difficult for you to be around some times. I can only guess how much you'd rather be somewhere else all the time..."

"Oh, bull crap."

Rarity blinked as she did a double take at her friend's response, "Pardon?"

"That is complete crap and you know it!" Rainbow walked to stand next to the surprised unicorn. "I know we don't hang out that much back in Ponyville, and that I always complain when you make me try those froufrou dresses, and that I like pulling pranks on you... and-- OK, so I can see why you might think that way..." Dash rubbed the back of her neck with a hoof, "But seriously, Rares. You're pretty cool in my book. I mean, you just saved my flank, like, three times today! And I've had an awesome time exploring the pyramids and this place with you so far, and it's all been thanks to you!"

"So... you don't mind me 'weighing you down', as it were?" Rarity looked at her friend with a hopeful smile.

"Eh. I'm fast enough for both of us." Rainbow smirked, "Besides, if you talk about dreams... I never thought I'd actually be exploring ancient ruins like Daring Do, but here I am! And thanks to you, too!" she wrapped a forearm around Rarity's neck, "And I'm even more awesome than Daring Do right now. I mean, she never had a cool magical-super-trap-disarming-fashionista sidekick!"

"Sidekick?" Rarity protested, with mock-offense on her voice.

"Oh, all right. What's it called when there's two heroes? Co... Co-pilot? Nah. I'm sure what Twilight said started with co..."

"Co-protagonist, perhaps?"

"Gesundheit. Anyway, you're the other hero of the story. Sounds fair?" Rainbow placed a hoof on Rarity's chest.

"Fair enough, I suppose." The unicorn giggled before looking down again. "And I'm sorry if I was... suffocating you before with my worrying."

Rainbow looked away as she felt another pang of guilt on her stomach. "Uh... tell you what: You stop worrying about what I want to do, and I'll start being at least twenty percent as careful as you are, deal?"

"Heh. I suppose that would already be about a hundred times more careful than you are right now." Rarity giggled as she bumped hooves with Dash to seal the deal.

"More like a million." Rainbow laughed alongside her friend for some time before kneeling on the floor, "All right, climb up and we'll be over these lame traps in a second!" she jerked her head up to look at her friend in the eye, "Er, I mean, a couple of seconds."

Rarity sighed happily and moved to climb onto Dash’s back, “Thank you, Rainbow Dash.”

---

Rainbow took a few steps back and launched herself into the tunnel, this time managing to avoid activating any of the traps, much to Rarity’s relief, and they easily navigated through the straight tunnel. There was a wall just feet away from the tunnel’s exit and the pair narrowly avoided crashing into it thanks to Dash’s quick reflexes.

The pegasus landed carefully on a new, bigger corridor with no end in sight as the path went down with a slight inclination. As they moved further down the path, a strange echoing noise started coming from further inside.

"Hey, did you hear that?" Rainbow asked as she perked her ears, trying to get a better feel of the strange noises.

"Is that... some sort of chanting?" Rarity looked at her friend while biting her lip. "That can't possibly be good, can it?"

The pair moved on as quietly as possible, the clopping of their hooves completely silenced as they sneaked on. The farther they went, the strange chants increased in volume and became clearer, though the ponies still couldn't make out what any of the individual words meant.

"Looks like they're coming from that chamber," whispered Rainbow, as the two of them hid behind a pillar in the main corridor, near what looked like an entrance to another room.

Rarity silently brought out her map for the level, "I think that's just some closed room... it does not seem to have any runes or anything else of note in it..." she bit her lip as she peeked ahead from behind the pillar. "Should we just sneak past this chamber?"

"Well..." Rainbow fought the urge to simply move to sneak a peek inside the strange room, I did promise... she sighed, then looked at her friend with a determined smile, "I'll go with you on this one, Rares."

The unicorn could feel a warmth bubbling inside her at her friend's words, and looked back at the map. The poor dear must be dying to go inside... though perhaps that could actually be a good idea after all, if we manage to take whatever is down there by surprise... She looked at the path on the map, It's a completely straight path until the entrance to the next level... if whatever is here comes behind us, it could be bad news later on... She bit her lip again as she kept on thinking of a plan... I'm surprised Dash hasn't simply jumped in at this point, though... I'd never imagined she could be so quiet... wait, quiet?

Rainbow was looking intently at her friend, trying her hardest to ignore the itch caused by standing still for so long, fighting the urge to simply rock in place. She noticed how Rarity suddenly perked up, and looked behind in the direction the unicorn was staring at. She was about to ask if anything was wrong, when she noticed the chanting from before was completely gone. The whole place was completely silent, except for a weak, buzzing sound coming from the same chamber. The pegasus gulped as she looked back at her friend, who desperately signaled for her to move closer.

"I think we should catch whatever is inside there by surprise while we still have the chance. Dash, get ready to go in on my signal, please." whispered the unicorn as she moved to peek inside the room.

"You got it!" Dash said in an excited whisper as she prepared to fly in, weapons at the ready.

As Rarity moved closer to the entrance, she could hear the buzzing growing stronger and stronger, and she noticed a faint red glow was reflecting on the floor. When she finally peeked around the corner, she had to hold in a gasp at what she saw: floating just above the ground, in front of an altar there was a vaguely human-looking figure, though perhaps a little bigger than the humans she had seen so far; on its head was a huge, dark and red ceremonial mask, with the golden silhouette of an eye on the part covering its face; its body was covered by long, dark robes, only with some strange leather vest worn over it for protection.
Its only human-like features were its arms, which were raised into the air as they held a bizarre staff with a goat's skull as its head. Much like the creatures from before, though, the skin on its arms was completely dark, almost as if it absorbed the light around it, and its fingers were much sharper, looking more like claws.

The creature floated there in concentration, completely unmoving, except for a strange swirling red barrier surrounding it. Rarity looked at the barrier with fascination as her horn itched from the magical energies emanating from it. She stared for a couple of seconds until a rustling of feathers behind her brought her back to reality.

It's now or never, I suppose. The unicorn signaled for her friend with a hoof, and she nocked an arrow on her bow in preparation with her magic.

The creature twitched at the feeling of magic nearby, and the humming of the barrier surrounding it was silenced abruptly as an arrow struck it in its arm. It barely had time to look at the direction the arrow was fired from as a rainbow blur struck its chest, its rough leather vest only barely stopping the piercing power of Dash's katars, but the impact still sent it flying into a wall.

As Dash prepared to go in for the killing blow, the creature was surrounded by a brief red light, and there suddenly exploded between the creature and her a blazing wall of flames. Rainbow only barely managed to change course to avoid slamming headfirst into the summoned firewall.

"Get it while we can, Rares!" She yelled as she flied away from the scorching flames.

"On it!" Rarity shot more arrows at the creature, but the fire managed to knock away some of them, making them either grazing shots or miss entirely.

"Ugh, this isn't working!"

The creature slowly stood back up as it began chanting in a low, whispering tone, and it soon started glowing, before disappearing in a flash of blue light, only to reappear on the main corridor, though much further inside than Rarity and Dash. It chanted again before sending a ball of flame in Rarity's direction, but the mare managed to hide behind a pillar to shield herself from the fiery explosion.

"Rares!" Dash went back outside as she watched the fiery burst from inside the chamber.

"I'm fine!" the unicorn reassured her friend as she watched the creature from before escaping further into the corridor. "Go get it while we still can, I'll try to catch up!"

"I've got this!" Dash launched after the creature at high speeds.

"Please be careful, dear..." Rarity added as she chased after her friend.

The creature proved too tricky for Dash to catch up easily; while it didn't move particularly fast, it made up for this by leaving firewalls on its path, and occasionally shooting fireballs back in Rainbow's general direction.

"You're just making it worse for you, chump!" yelled Dash as she maneuvered around the flames. Dammit, I like it hot, but this is getting annoying!

They were nearing the end of the corridor, with the portal to the next level just barely in sight, when the creature suddenly stopped, and pointed its staff at Dash.

"Pasana!" the mage commanded with a guttural voice.

The pegasus got ready to dodge anything sent her way, but instead of the creature shooting flames or any other magics, Dash caught a glimpse of something shining behind a pillar just ahead of her, and instantly looped around on instinct. She only barely managed to avoid a couple of masked humans that jumped at her, with curved swords at the ready, their slashing actually managing to cut away part of her tail.

"Hey!" Dash hovered above them, wiping the sweat off her face as she looked at the hairs of her tail fluttering down to the floor.

"You're gonna pay for-" she was interrupted as the humans jumped at her again, forcing her to back away from the now snickering mage.

"You lousy little-- whoa!" The masked humans kept jumping at her, even as she flew closer to the ceiling, and the mage was now chanting again. Where did these guys even come from!?

The sound of more swordsman rushing in from the other side of the portal filled the corridor; at least a dozen more of them marched in, all moving very quickly towards her. The pair that she was currently busy with finally stopped lunging at her, and she finally got a good look at what she was up against:

They looked a little more like humans than the rest of the creatures they'd found so far, and they stood smaller and with lighter skin than the mage as well, but it was still a darker tone than any of the humans' she'd seen so far; they only wore what looked like a white skirt, and masks with veils, along with many golden armbands and necklaces; all of the masks had the same angered expression, but Dash couldn't see eyes behind the mask's eye-holes, with only a deep darkness in its place.

The two swordsmen stood in a barely crouched position, looking ready to lunge at her at a moment's notice, though they kept playing with their scimitars, constantly throwing it from one hand to another, and soon they were joined by the reinforcements of the lower level, all of them forming a line in front of Dash to protect the dark mage.

"So, all of you against just me, huh? Seems fair." Rainbow glanced back at the firewalls behind her, If I fly all the way back, I could build up speed for a rainboom... the explosion should be enough to deal with these chumps. But wait... what if I end up wrecking the place? It's pretty old in here... argh! Stupid Rarity and her dumb panicky... worryness!

As she tried to come up with a plan, the swordsmen started advancing, with a few of them actually jumping along with slashing attacks.

"Ugh!" Dash started flying back to where she left Rarity, Plan B, then!

Rarity was tired from all the galloping around firewalls, and her white hooves were now full of soot from all the burnt stone caused by what she could only assume was a rain of fire on the corridor. "You better be okay, Rainbow Dash!" she thought out loud as she panted from all the running on what now felt like a sauna to her.

"Rares! Get ready!" came the voice of her friend from further inside.

"What do you mean 'get rea-' waah!" Rarity was soon lifted off the ground by a sweating Rainbow Dash, "You know, I should've known better." she deadpanned.

"Starting to like it, I bet." Rainbow smirked at her, "Anyway, remember that mage from before?"

"Hard not to. Its magic has done quite a number on my poor hooves. Not to mention this horrid heat."

"Yeah, well, turns out he had some friends. Friends with swords and quick moves." Dash said hastily, "I don't think we can take them out that easily."

Rarity looked back, and she could see the troop of swordsmen Dash was talking about marching towards them, walking straight through the firewalls as if they were nothing, causing Rarity to flinch.

"Then how do we deal with them?" she tried firing at them with her bow, but the monsters simply cut any arrow that was about to hit them.

"I thought about blasting them off with a rainboom, but I remembered what you said back on the tunnel about becoming trapped inside and--" Rainbow was interrupted by a sudden squirming from her passenger.

"That's it! That's brilliant, Dash!" Rarity said excitedly as she pointed at the beginning of the corridor, just outside of the tunnel they came in from; "Quick, let me down here; I'll hide, and when the creatures get here, lure them into the tunnel and the traps will take care of them! I'll take are of anything trying to run away with my arrows!"

The pegasus touched down just outside the tunnel's exit, and Rarity hurried off to hide behind a pillar, "All right Rares, you be careful too, okay?" she shouted back at her friend as she flew forward to meet back with the Pasana.

Rainbow didn't have to fly far to find the monsters, they marched quickly enough to match an average pony's galloping, and it looked like the heat wasn't affecting them in the slightest.

"Oh, finally. I was wondering where you slowpokes went off to." Dash said smugly as she fluttered above the Pasana, stretching her limbs, "I even got to take a little nap, and, boy, was it nice!"

The swordsmen below started grunting, and a couple of them slashed upwards to attack the annoying pegasus, but she quickly moved out of the way just in time, only for the rest of the monsters to start attacking all over the place.

"Whoops!" Dash landed at the exit of the tunnel, "Hey, maybe you can catch me if I'm not flying, right?" she taunted as she fluttered the tips of her wings.

The Pasana growled something in their strange tongue as they went off after the pegasus, some lifting their swords in the air to curse at the annoying intruder.

"See, now that's the spirit!" Rainbow said as she ran into the dark tunnel, followed closely behind by the angered monsters.

Good job, Dash. Rarity peeked from behind the pillar at the empty corridor, and stood at the entrance of the tunnel with her bow at the ready. She scrunched her face in expectation, ready for the sound of hundreds of traps being triggered, but the dark tunnel remained silent, until a loud yell came from the other side:

"Rares! They're avoiding the traps!"

Rainbow looked back anxiously as the monsters practically danced around the pressure plates and other triggers in the near-darkness, which only barely managed to slow them down.

"Ponyfeathers!" Rarity bit her lip as she tried to come up with a plan, "Just get out of there, Rainbow Dash!" she yelled as she herself ran into the tunnel, the light on her horn started to shine an intense blue light as she searched for the triggers from before. Prudence didn't work, let's try brashness!

The floor beneath the Pasana gave a low rumble as the switches and cogs started moving by an unseen magic, and the narrow tunnel was suddenly filled by the many traps being triggered: metal spikes came out of the floor and ceiling, impaling some of the monsters; swinging blade came to life out of nowhere, completely slicing one of the creatures clean in half, and taking the limbs of some of the others. The rest of the Pasana panicked, and started triggering the rest of the traps by themselves; the growls and curses of the creatures filled the tunnel as poisoned darts shot out of spouts on the walls, some of them even whisking past dangerously close the shocked unicorn.

It was over in a minute, and as the last of the Pasana fell to the ground, the tunnel was left with a deafening silence save for the sound of swinging blades still active in place, cutting through the air, and the panting of the exhausted unicorn.

"Rares? Are you okay in there!?"

The sudden shout startled Rarity, who simply sat into the stone floor for a few seconds before she shined her horn further into the tunnel, where the light was blocked at intervals by the swinging blades. She could see the bodies of the fallen Pasana dissolving into the air, and she let out a heavy sigh of relief.

"I'm fine, Dash! How about you?"

"I think I'm stuck over here unless you can do something about those swinging traps on the way! I can only barely see them with your magic!" the pegasus' shouts sounded much farther away as they echoed through the tunnel.

Rarity was about to answer when a sudden humming noise startled her from behind, and a firewall appeared in front of her.

"Aah!" she tried backing away, when a second fire wall appeared now behind her, completely trapping her in the tunnel. She looked back the see the dark mage from before chanting just at the entrance of the tunnel.

Rarity tried firing her bow to fire at the monster, but the flames lashing at her and the scorching heat made it impossible for her to concentrate, and she simply stood helplessly as the monster sent out another fireball directly at her. The unicorn tried to muster the last of her energies to form a magical barrier, managing to block the missile but causing a deafening explosion from the impact to roar throughout the tunnel, and everything went black for Rarity.

***

Rainbow perked up as she heard the scream of her friend from the other side of the tunnel, and the blue light from her magic was replaced by the light of fire on the other side.

"Hang on, Rares! I'm coming!" Rainbow bolted into the tunnel, and gulped as the sound of more screaming was interrupted only by the sound of blades slicing through air.

Alright, Dash, you only get one shot at this. You fail, and you're both goners.

The pegasus stopped just in front of the swinging blades, the light of the fire ahead only barely letting her see the blades from further inside. Okay, I got this. Just get a feel for the rhythm of the slices... I can do this!

The pegasus quickly maneuvered through the blades; only a sudden clicking noise, or a sudden whisk guiding her path. She could feel the blades inches away from her nose some times, as well as inches behind her tail, which she was sure was now even shorter. A sudden flash of red light startled her, and she could see Rarity just ahead, only after one last blade. The sight of her friend completely trapped between walls of fire nearly brought the pegasus over the edge, and then she noticed the incoming fireball about to hit the trapped unicorn and launched to her aid.

"Rarity!" her screams went unheard as the unicorn put up a barrier to block the attack, only for the fireball's explosion to knock Rarity back through the firewall and onto the ground only feet away from Rainbow Dash.

"GRAAH!", the pegasus donned her katars and launched herself screaming straight through both firewalls, the cone of air forming at the tip of her weapons tore right through the magical fire, and she could see the mage flinch as the walls were dispelled. She was only a few feet away form the creature as it tried one last desperate chant, but Rainbow tore through the monster at such a speed she didn't even feel the impact, and the lifeless body of the monster simply distorted itself and vanished into thin air, leaving behind only its strange staff.

Rainbow panted heavily as she watched the staff drop onto the floor, "Stupid... monkey things! That's what you deserve." Her mind cleared as she took in deep breaths, and flinched as she looked back at the tunnel.

"Oh, crap! Rarity!"

She flew straight back into the tunnel and started searching for her friend, the only sources of light were the dying embers still on the floor from the fireball. After a quick swoop down the tunnel, she found a bulge on the floor, and a quick tapping revealed what she thought was her friend's shoulder.

"Come on, Rares, wake up!" she anxiously nudged the unmoving unicorn. "Come on! You're made of tougher stuff than that!" She started shaking her friend harder until she heard a slight clinking of glass coming from her.

The potions! She tried searching for the satchel, but the poor lighting wouldn't let her even tell her friend's clothes from her bag.

"Alright, I'm getting you out of here, Rares! Hang in there!" Dash carefully lifted the unmoving unicorn onto her back. She could barely feel Rarity's breath inches away from her own neck, and she quickened her pace.

Rainbow quickly made her way out of the tunnel, and let her friend down just below one of the few lit torches.

"Come on, come on, come on!" the pegasus whispered anxiously as she took the satchel off her friend. "There we go!" she uncorked one of the yellow potions, and quickly moved the bottle to Rarity's lips.

"Come on, Rares, this'll make you feel better!" she urged as she tried feeding the healing liquid to her friend, holding the unicorn to herself like a little filly.

After much effort on Dash's part, Rarity finally took a couple of sips, and the pegasus calmed down as her friend's breathing became more controlled.

"Whew..." Rainbow looked down at Rarity laying on her stomach fast asleep, and winced at what the fire had done: there were black spots all over her white face from all the soot, and her coat, mane and tail were all singed in various places, along with her tattered cloak.

"I'm the one supposed to take the hits, Rares." the pegasus smiled softly as she cleaned her friend's face with her own cloak, and tried smoothing out the singed spots with a hoof, only to end up patting her friend on the head as she slept.

"At this rate, I'm gonna have to start calling you Rarity Do... or Daringty? Raring? Eh, whatever." Dash chuckled as she laid her back on the stone floor. She didn't end up in the most comfortable of beds, but at the moment, the pegasus couldn't wish for a better blanket... even with all the sweating from before.

---

Everything was dark for Rarity as she slowly woke up. She could feel and hear a loud rumbling slightly shaking her head, and she opened her eyes to a field of cyan fur filling her vision. As she rubbed the sleep off her eyes, she noticed the rumbling was coming from her current pillow, and looked up to see Dash completely splayed on the ground, snoring away with gusto.

Rarity giggled lightly as she snuggled back into her pillow for a couple of seconds, until a new loud grumbling, this time more visceral, startled her, and she noticed it was coming right from her 'pillow'.

Oh, my. The unicorn blushed as she got up from her friend's stomach, and had to sit down from a sudden dizzy spell, followed by a headache. "Ugh..." she moaned as she rubbed her forehead just below her horn. Twilight makes those barriers look like child's play...

A sudden rustling of feathers below her startled her, and she turned to look ad Dash stretching and yawning.

"Oh, uh, slept well, dear? Sorry that I ended up using you as a pillow..." Rarity said through reddened cheeks.

"Huh?" Dash barely registered what was being said as she slowly woke up.

"Never you mind that, darling." the unicorn quickly changed subjects, "So, I gather you would like to have lunch? I brought some of the leftover fruits from before..."

Rainbow's stomach answered for herself with a loud grumble, and the pegasus nodded excitedly. "Sounds good!"

"Marvelous." Rarity inspected her cloak's pockets, "Now, let's see... I know I put them somewhere in here..." She probed the many pockets of her coat, but felt nothing in them, I'm absolutely sure I put those gems from before in here as well... she thought as she brought her hoof inside one of the pockets, and instantly felt the gemstones on her hooves.

"What in..." the unicorn brought out the gems and inspected them curiously, before setting them on the ground.

Then the leftovers... she thought as she reached for another pocket, and felt the lunchbox on her hoof.

"Uh, Dash? Have you noticed anything... strange about your cloak?" the unicorn said as she brought a pair of small wooden boxes out of her cloak.

"Eh? I told you it was fine, Rares." the pegasus said as she hungrily eyed the lunchbox on the ground.

"No, I mean... oh, never mind. I'll figure it out later." Rarity said as she put the gems back in one of her pockets, only for it to feel like they disappeared again.

"Anyhow, here you go, dear: apples, carrots, and some of the leftover salads from yesterday." Rarity pushed one of the boxes towards her friend, and opened her own. She hadn't realized how hungry she was until her own belly started making noises the moment the food was uncovered.

"Ah-heh. I guess it was high time for lunch, was it not?"

"Mhm!" Dash replied happily as she ate the salad straight from the lunchbox, completely ignoring whatever was being said.

"Manners, dear!" Rarity sighed as her words were thoroughly ignored, and simply started quietly eating her own food in small bites.

Rainbow was done with her food in just a few seconds, and sighed happily as she rubbed her now full belly. "Ahh... that hit the spot." She looked back at her friend, "So, you feeling better now? You had me worried there for a second; that explosion looked like it hurt..."

The unicorn rubbed her forehead again as she swallowed another bite of salad, "Other than a small headache from using too much magic and some burnt fur, I think I shall be just fine. And all thanks to you, I imagine."

Rainbow grinned as she moved closer to bump her friend's shoulder with a hoof, "Well, I couldn't just let you deal with all the monsters by yourself, right?" She patted a part of Rarity's burnt hair, and looked at it closer, "Besides, don't you have, like, some spell to fix this right away?"

"Well, as a matter of fact, I do..." the unicorn smiled at her friend, "But if you can start acting more careful for our sake, I suppose I can start being less... fussy, as it were." She paused and looked away, "At least until we're done here. When I'm back at the guild's bath, I swear I'm having a full makeover session!"

Dash laughed and rolled her eyes at her friend in amusement. "Figures."

Rarity continued her meal as Dash got up to look for something in the tunnel, only saying that she'd 'be right back.'

She returned shortly after Rarity had finished her meal, and was carrying the wand that the monster had been using before, "It left this behind after I kicked its tail... you think you can use it for your magic or something?"

The unicorn grabbed the staff with her magic, and she could feel a slight tingle on her own horn as the staff amplified her magic, which ended up with the staff smacking against her face as she brought it closer with more force than she intended.

"Ow..." Rarity rubbed her snout, and gave a snickering Rainbow Dash a quick glare as she set the staff on the floor. "I don't think I can use this without some practice first... not to mention that I wouldn't be caught dead using such a horrid little thing." she looked at the goat skull adorning the staff, sticking her tongue out in disgust.

Dash was still snickering as a light bulb went off in her head. "Oh! Maybe we can sell it, then! It's gotta be worth something if it makes magic stronger, right?"

"I suppose..." the unicorn rubbed her chin as she looked away in contemplation, "It would be nice to have some extra bits if we're going to have to look for the others in this... world."

"Awesome! Our first monster loot!" Rainbow grinned as she threw a hoof in the air.

"We should probably get going, though... better finish the task at hand before we start planning the next, hm?" Rarity stood up and stretched.

"You sure you're good to go? I don't mind waiting a bit for your headache to stop." Dash eyed the unicorn suspiciously.

"Oh, don't worry yourself bout that, dear. I believe it may have been simply from a lack of food; why, I'm feeling better already!"

"Well... all right, if you say so." Rainbow shrugged and the pair walked down the corridor to the last rune at the entrance to the next level.

---

After repairing the rune, the ponies made their way down through the portal to the next level. Much like on the last floor, the lighting was dimmer, though the actual floor was bigger and they could see there were more detailed carvings on the walls, many depicting more of the dog-humans Dash had seen before, further exciting the curious pegasus with the extra air-space.

"Let's see now..." Rarity shuffled through her maps, "Well, this can't be right..."

"What's up?" Dash hovered above her friend, trying to look at the map her friend brought out.

"Well, it says all of the runes are next to the entrance to the final level... and this floor isn't as much of a maze as the last ones..." the unicorn said warily.

"Cool! That means this should be a cakewalk. Probably building up to the last level, though." Rainbow rubbed her hooves in anticipation.

"I don't know... it may be that, or there might be some manner of trick on this floor..." Rarity sighed as she put the map back onto its satchel. "We should probably keep an eye out for trouble, at any rate."

The pair navigated through the floor quietly, with only the occasional 'oohs' and 'aahs' from Dash at the more impressive carvings. They eventually came upon a huge skeleton standing on a pedestal; it was armored with a helmet, heavy spaulders and a huge shield, and it wielded an enormous spear at the ready, almost looking as if it was going to jump at the ponies passing in front of it.

"No way!"

Rainbow flew up to the skeleton, looking at it directly through its eye-holes, "Do you think there's still human giants around? This guy looks awesome!"

"That's one way of putting it..." Rarity looked carefully at the imposing skeleton, arching her neck to look all the way up. "Personally, I cannot say I agree with this choice of decor..."

"What are you talking about? It has the perfect 'keep out or else' feel for a place like this." Dash said as she waved a hoof in front of the skeleton's face.

"True enough, I suppose." the unicorn said as she shuddered. "A-anyway, we should best move on... I'd rather not test our luck and have this... thing suddenly attacking us."

They were soon on the move again, the deadly silence was starting to get on Rarity's nerves, and she started looking around anxiously. She jumped suddenly at the sound of hooves hitting the ground, and looked back at Rainbow giving her a sheepish smile.

"Hehe. Sorry, Rares." the pegasus grinned right afterwards, though, and moved to walk side-by-side with her friend. "I can totally see why you get along so well with Fluttershy now, though. Both of you get scared by your own hoofsteps!" She said as she started chuckling.

"First off, we both know Fluttershy can be very brave when she has to; the poor dear is simply... overly sensitive some times." Rarity said as Rainbow started chuckling harder. "Second, I'm not afraid of hoofsteps, it's just... it's all so very quiet in here; it's making me nervous..." the unicorn said as she looked around them, as if expecting a dozen of monsters would drop off the ceiling, or jump from behind the various pillars.

"You're just being paranoid." Dash said as she leaned closer to put a hoof on Rarity's back. "Besides, if anything does come out, I'll be sure to kick its butt!" she said through a grin.

"Or at the very least fly me away if something too dangerous comes up." Rarity relaxed a little at the contact, and let out a short giggle, "Thanks, dear."

"Just leave it to me!" Rainbow saluted as she went back to hover directly above Rarity.

--

As they walked deeper into the dungeon, a sudden, loud stomping pierced through the air, making Rarity jump up, only to be caught by a startled Rainbow Dash.

"What the hay?" Dash perked up, her ears standing on point as she slowly let an embarrassed Rarity onto the floor.

There was a rumbling as more of the stomps resonated throughout the place, seemingly coming from around the corner not far away from them.

"Quick! Behind that pillar!" Rarity said in a rushed voice as she tried to hide herself.

Just as they were making their way to their hiding place, the stomping was soon accompanied by many heavy grunts and huffs, and out of the corner came six huge minotaurs, standing at least three times the height of the ponies themselves, all of them snorting and grunting in anger at the sight of the intruders.

The biggest of the bunch, standing at least a head above the others and sporting a redder hide and horns pointing upward let out a frightening roar as it pointed its huge battle-hammer, which was easily bigger than the monster itself, at the ponies. At the signal, all of the monsters charged at their prey.

"Rarity! Get away, I'll distract them!" Rainbow said as she flew at the charging monsters with her weapons at the ready.

The nimble pegasus flew over the charging beasts, managing to give a few glancing cuts to the face of the one she flew over, and the monster let out a loud whine and roared savagely as it rubbed the blood off its face. The rest of the minotaurs turned back and roared at Dash in berserk, some of them hitting the ground with their battle-hammers, making the ground shake and crack at their might.

"Aah! Get away, you brute!"

Rainbow looked back over the monsters to see Rarity trying to run away from the red minotaur.

The monster was swinging its battle-hammer at her, hitting the ground next to the unicorn as she tried her best to evade the blows, though the strength of the blows was powerful enough that Rarity's ears were left ringing from every impact. Her headache was coming back and the whole world was slowly getting blurrier and blurrier, making it harder for her to doge each coming attack.

The red beast raised its hammer overhead, the hammer's head nearly touching the monster's back, and it dealt the most powerful blow yet. Rarity barely managed to move aside in time, but the impact was powerful enough to know her back a couple of feet, and she landed on her back with a thud. She hurriedly tried getting back up, but her whole world was left spinning from the attack, and she could only barely crawl on the floor.

The monster leaned down, pointing its horns at the fallen pony, and readied to charge.

"Leave her alone, freak!"

A rainbow blur struck the minotaur on its side, and it flinched slightly at the feeling of something getting stuck on its though hide.

Crap, crap, crap! Rainbow tried in vain to pull her katars out of the monster, which was barely even bleeding from the attack, when a sudden swat from the monster forced her to fly away. The pegasus narrowly dodged the attack, leaving her weapons stuck in the monster and she heard the rest of the minotaurs stomping as they charged from behind.

"Rarity, run away!" Dash yelled as she started flying in circles around the red minotaur, quickly surrounding it in a small rainbow tornado.

"Watch out, Dash!" Rarity screamed as she finally got up, though her vision was still blurry, she could see the monster getting ready to swat at her friend with all its might.

No! Not again! The unicorn quickly fired an arrow at the monster. Please don't hit Rainbow, please don't hit Rainbow, please don't hit Rainbow!

The arrow flew true, and Dash suddenly felt a swift breeze right in front of her, only for a deafening roar to come out from the monster as the arrow found its mark right in the beast's eye.

"Agh!" the sudden outburst shook Dash and sent her crashing just behind a pillar.

Rarity gulped as the monster started snorting and growling while looking at her, and she turned to run around a corner as the monster let out a new roar, and all of the minotaurs were now chasing after Rarity.

"Dammit!" Dash shook her head and shot off to follow after the monsters. How can I even stop those things? I can't risk a rainboom here, and the stupid thing barely even flinched when I stabbed it!

She turned around the corner, and just barely caught a sight of the monsters going around another corner further ahead. Think, dammit! Rarity's counting on you!

The air's too dry for thunderclouds... the tornado wasn't even really annoying the stupid thing... agh! What's the point of weather magic if I can't just shoot thunder out of my hooves or something!? Come on, Rares would've already come up with something!

"By making their body used to poison, aspirants with magical expertise may learn how to call the venomous essence in their body to strike at their foes." Rainbow heard the voice of her friend suddenly in the back of her head, and the pegasus licked her lips nervously as she was finally reaching the slower of the minotaurs.

All right, uh... poison! I know you're somewhere inside me! I'm not even sure what 'magical expertise' even means, but you just work like the rest of pegasus magic, right? Dash closed her eyes and didn't notice her hooves shining purple, she felt a slight stinging in her tip of her front hooves and rammed straight into the back of one of the minotaurs.

I'm counting on you, poison!

The minotaur tumbled into the ground from the hit, and in let out loud grunts and whines as it tried to reach at its back. Only to slowly fall silent as the poison spread throughout its body.

Rainbow Dash didn't even have time to see if her plan worked as she systematically rammed each of the minotaurs on her way. She had already tripped four of the minotaurs as she noticed another one bending around a corner past the stairs just ahead of her.

"AAAH!"

Rarity's scream echoed throughout the closed corridor as the beasts approached her, and she ran behind a small pedestal holding a pair of sarcophagus, using it as cover.

The red minotaur roared at her as it threw its battle-hammer away, and jumped on top of the pedestal to grab the scurrying pony, crushing the sarcophagus with its enormous weight. Rarity was grabbed by one of its powerful, huge hands, and the beast squeezed the air out of her as it brought her to its face. The small unicorn trembled at the sight of the beasts angry face inches away from her, and the creature roared, covering Rarity's face with saliva and blood from the minotaur's eye wound.

I'm sorry, everypony... I'm afraid this may be it.

Rainbow could see the monster about to bite her friend's head off, and her whole vision turned purple as she rushed even faster.

"I'm coming, Rares! Hang in there!"

The minotaur turned to look at a rainbow blur closing in on it, and as soon as it tried to squeeze the pony in its hands to death, the arrow in its eye was enveloped by a blue aura and started moving inside the wound, causing the beast to roar in pain again as it threw the unicorn away from the shock.

Rarity kept her magic focused on the arrow as she was sent flying through the air, and rolled as she hit the ground, tumbling directly into a pillar, with the impact of her back hitting the hard stone almost knocking her out again.

The next thing the monster knew was a stinging pain hitting it right through its chest, then in its jaw, then its stomach and all over its body. The pain was followed by numbness quickly spreading throughout its whole body, and it let out a loud, visceral moo as darkness took over it, and it fell silent.

---

Rainbow kept striking at the beast until she felt a soft tap on her shoulder that startled her. She swatted at whatever touched her shoulder, and looked back to see Rarity's white hoof was slowly becoming a sickly purple, and her own two hooves were already shining purple from the venom.

Just like us.

"AAAH!" the pegasus screamed as she moved back in a panic, she could see the purple on her hooves slowly advancing further and further into her own body; even her vision started filling with a stronger purple, and tears started forming on the corner of her eyes.

"No!"

A sudden warmth enveloped her, and she could see a deep violet aura started surrounding them, followed by Rarity's voice:

"Shh, it's okay, Dash, we're okay. Just breathe." Rarity cooed as she patted the trembling pegasus on the head, and she soon had her wrapped in a comforting hug, fighting the numbness spreading throughout her body. "I'm here. Let me help you."

The calm, warm voice started soothing Rainbow's wrecked nerves, and the mare slowly relaxed as she sobbed onto her friend's shoulder.

The two ponies simply sat together in silence, the violet shine of Rarity's magic illuminating the whole corridor as she fought the dying poison.

The minutes passed away, and Rainbow's sobs stopped as she calmed down; she now simply hugged her friend, refusing to let go.

"...are you okay, darling?" Rarity broke the silence with a bit of a grunt to her voice.

"..." Dash simply nodded on her friend's shoulder, refusing to look up.

"...I'm sorry, but I need to drink some healing potion. I took a bit of a fall back there, you see." the unicorn said through a forced chuckle.

"...sorry." Rainbow replied as she let go of her, still looking at the ground.

"Oh, that was hardly your fault, dear. In fact, I'm fairly certain you just saved me yet again." Rarity smiled warmly as she uncorked one of their last few potions.

"And then I nearly killed you with my stupid poison..." Dash snorted as she looked away. "You probably think I'm like those stupid monsters now... I breaking and killing wherever I go..."

Dash felt the warm breath of Rarity on her neck as the unicorn nuzzled her. She tried moving away, but tripped with the unicorn's added weight, and she felt as her friend laid her chin on her back.

"That is, as you would put it: Bull crap."

Rainbow perked her ears and turned slowly to look at her friend with a raised eyebrow, causing the unicorn to blush.

"Uh, pardon the language." Rarity forced a cough, "But it's true... I would never think of you that way, dear. You know this." her tone showed a feeling of disappointment as she looked away, "...besides, I can deal with a little poison now." She looked down at Dash with a caring smile on her face, "So you don't have to worry about hurting anything you don't want to... if you ever need help with that kind of thing, I will always be there to help you, okay?"

"Okay..." Rainbow couldn't help the smile forming on her face as she nodded again, and she could feel tears threatening to come out again. "J-just," she sniffed quickly, "Just don't ever tell anypony I bawled like a foal, okay? I mean..."

"My lips are sealed... as long as you don't tell anypony about my foul language." Rarity giggled.

"Heh. You're alright, Rares." Rainbow joined her friend in giggling.

---

After a short rest, the ponies began backtracking to where they first encountered the minotaurs, which resulted in them getting lost for some time before finding the right spot.

"I'm just saying, when you're flying after a bunch of rampaging bulls, you don't really have the time to check on directions and stuff." Dash defended.

"I didn't mean to imply that, dear. I was just wondering how you could possibly come to the conclusion that 'north' is meant to be 'up through the ceiling'." Rarity shook her head as she wondered how Dash had managed to get them lost in what was supposed to be a straight corridor.

"Hey! We're here again!" Dash flew ahead and landed next to various cracks on the floor. "This is where you had your dance with that red minotaur."

"I wouldn't call those things 'minotaurs', myself..." Rarity said to nobody in particular as she moved forward while looking at the map, "To think we were attacked when we were so close to the runes... although, I suppose they may have been defending them... keep your guard up, Dash, who knows if there's more of those things in there."

"Yes'm!" Rainbow saluted and took to the air again.

"Okay... the runes are supposed to be on some pillars just on the other side of this wall..."

Rarity silently approached to take a peek from the corner, and couldn't contain her glee at what he saw: the stone path leading to the portal was surrounded by a shallow pool of clear, fresh water. She had to call forth all her self control to avoid simply jumping into it.

"Water!" Dash said excitedly as she dunked her head in the pool. "Oh, man, I've needed that for a while now. You should try it, Rares, it's nice and cool!"

Rarity gingerly approached the water, giving it a wary look as she sniffed at it to make sure it was safe to drink. She finally took a few delicate sips, "Ahh... it is rather refreshing." she sighed happily before a wave of cool water suddenly hit her in the face.

Rarity glared through her wet mane at a chuckling Rainbow Dash washing her face carefully near the pool in an innocent facade; the pegasus had already discarded her cloak and was doing her best to ignore her friend's burning glare as she prepared to jump into the pool, but the water in front of Dash slowly raised from the floor and formed a ball of water as it was surrounded by a light blue aura.

"It. Is. On."

Rarity smirked as the pegasus tried in vain to get away, only to be tackled by the water ball, leaving her as a completely drenched mess.

"Hey! Magic's not fair!" Dash grumbled as she tapped her head and wiggled her ears in an attempt to get the water out.

"I merely thought you would like some help, ah, 'freshening up', darling." Rarity giggled and smiled smugly at the soaked pegasus as she removed her own cloak and prepared to get down to the water, but a light bump on her rump startled her, and she landed on the pool with a huge splash.

Rainbow laughed and immediately jumped next to her, making another big splash and leaving Rarity now completely soaked.

"There! Now we're even." Dash said with a huge grin.

"Well, I wouldn't be so sure about that..." Rarity gave a mischievous smile as she pounced at her friend, pining Dash below her, and tickling her using her mane as a brush.

"Ah-hahah! Wait! Rares!" Dash squirmed as she tried to shake off the surprisingly resilient unicorn, but her strength waned away from the tickling and the water. "I give up! Hah-ha! Please!"

Rarity got up with a satisfied smile on her face, and carefully took her mane out of her mouth, "Phery well, dearf, pff. Since you insist." she moved to allow her friend to stand, and turned to show her back to the still panting pegasus.

"Losers get to give the winner a well-deserved backrub." she added matter-of-factly.

"Whew... " Rainbow got up with an amused smile on her face, and sat down behind Rarity, "Who knew you played dirty, Rares."

"Well... perhaps the whole 'thief' business is finally getting to me, hm?"

Rarity giggled as she felt Dash clumsily figuring out how to massage her back, "Just rub lightly in small circles, dear. Ahh... yes, just like that..." She soon lost herself in the feeling of her muscles relaxing, and started humming a happy little tune.

A few minutes had passed after Rarity looked smiling back at Dash, who was being surprisingly thorough, "Very well, dear. Your turn now, turn around!" she commanded.

"Huh? Didn't you say this was the loser's job?"

"Yes, well, what kind of pony would I be if I didn't share my winnings, after all?" Rarity forced Dash to turn around, and soon started massaging her back and wings, with the pegasus melting at the touch.

"O-oh... well, I mean, if you say s-ooh... that's the spot..."

A few minutes passed in complete silence, only broken by a sudden chuckle from Dash at being ticklish, or a happy moan as a particularly tense muscle was massaged.

"You know, Dash..." the unicorn gulped, "We... might not actually make it out of this place in one piece. If whatever is down there is more dangerous than anything we've faced so far... I'm not sure if... you know..." Rarity moved back, anticipating Dash to snap at her.

"Nah, we got this." Dash waved a hoof casually.

"But... you can't possibly be sure about that, I mean-"

A cyan hoof closed Rarity's mouth as Dash looked back to stand face-to-face with her, "You're just gonna worry yourself to death if you start thinking too much about it." A pair of magenta eyes stared directly at Rarity's with a deep determination shining through them, "We're gonna go down there and kick the ass of whatever's been messing around with the runes; you're gonna be free from that dumb debt to the dumb old guy, and we're going to go find everypony else, get back home and show that Morroc thing what happens when you mess with our friends!"

Rarity felt a smile forming on her face as Rainbow removed her hoof from her mouth. She had never seen such a serious expression on the usually carefree pegasus, and simply stood there, taking it all in.

"Got it?" the smile on Dash's face looked almost devoted.

"Of course." Rarity felt her worries melting away as she watched that smile, and the smile on her own face grew warmer, "Thank you, Rainbow Dash. I think I really needed that." And here I thought she was not taking this seriously.

"You just worry too much." Dash snickered, "Though everypony always says I worry too little, so I guess you balance it out, huh?"

The two ponies laughed softly as they made their way out of the pool, and Rarity quickly made her way to work on the runes on each of the four pillars supporting the area around the portal to the final level of the sphinx.

The runes took more effort than expected, which the unicorn attributed to fatigue, but after some time and with no distractions around, the runes were finally dealt with, and the pair moved to the gate leading to the final level.

The portal itself looked almost like a shrine with many detailed carvings and a pair of ornate torches standing unlit at each end, while a broad path of polished stone led into it, flanked by pools of clear water on both sides; two giant skeleton sentinels stood guard on pedestals placed in the middle of each pool, their spears pointing at a specific point on the floor, where the last rune of the level was placed.

"Well... that... that's quite something isn't it?" Rarity walked slowly towards the rune, taking in all of the detailed work that went into making the final gate.

Rainbow simply nodded as she stood there, mouth slightly agape.

Rarity got to work on the rune, laying on the floor in front of it with her horn alive with magic. A few soft grunts escaped her from time to time as she tried fixing it.

"You holding okay in there, Rares?" Dash stood next to her friend and looked at the rune glowing blue on the ground, and Rarity frowning from the effort in front of it.

The unicorn grunted delicately again, and her eyes closed while concentrating, "These, ugh, makes no sense! *Hah...* Every other rune so far had been connected only to, ugh, to that deep energy from further inside, but every single rune in this floor has felt different. As if they were connected to something else as well... it's like I have to do two times more work to fix them." Rarity panted as her horn stopped glowing and the rune on the floor flashed a fiery red, while the torches ahead of them blazed alight.

Rarity laid on the floor, catching her breath as a rumbling sound came from the pools, and she felt a hoof poking at her flank.

"Uh, Rares?"

Dash kept prodding at her friend as she looked at the skeleton on the pool moving to stand in an upright position, while it rested its spear's shaft on the pedestal, adopting a more relaxed stance. The eye-holes on its skull suddenly glowed in a blue light, and it looked down at the trembling ponies in front it.

"Sy shem? Itja?"

The deep, raspy voice resonated throughout the shrine, sending goosebumps down the ponies' spines. Rarity quickly stood up back-to-back with Rainbow, each of them looking at a different skeleton.

"E-excuse me?" The unicorn was shaking at the sight of the enormous skeleton looking down at her with glowing eyes.

"Who goes? Have the rogues come to honor their pact?"

The ponies stood still for a moment, exchanging quick questioning glances between each other.

A sudden prod on Rarity's stomach by a cyan elbow forced her to talk, "Um, hello there, fine, uh... skeletons, sirs... I am Rarity."

The skeleton simply kept staring at the creature in front of it in a deadly silence.

"And... um, I was sent by the Thieves' Guild. To fix the runes on this fine place of yours."

"This is not our place. It is our duty to guard this tomb for eternity. We are the Sentinels of the Sphinx."

"Be warned: The Pharaoh has partially escaped his imprisonment. He took advantage of the waning power of the seals, and disrupted their energies throughout the Sphinx. He regains his power and his forces as his high priests further damage the seals. They gather on his inner shrine, past this gate."

Rainbow's ears perked up, "Forces? As in an army?"

"Not yet his full army. Given time, it will be."

Rarity audibly gulped at the news, and looked back at a Dash biting her lip as she looked at the gate.

"But... we have been fixing the runes as we advanced! Surely, that must have helped for something!" She pointed at the glowing rune expectantly.

"It is thanks to this that we have awoken. At the same time, it is likely the Pharaoh himself has taken notice of you; the seals may have weakened him, though his high priests may work on corrupting them again."

Rainbow Dash perked up and flew up to one of the skeletons, "Then, you can help us out, right? We saw more of you guys on our way here!"

"We cannot move from this level."

"Can't? As in physically can't?" Dash glanced at the skeleton in front of her with a questioning look.

"Our duty is to stop the Pharaoh should his forces move to this level. There are more of us in the inner shrine, but the runes that power them have been disrupted, and so they lay asleep."

"Oh, come on!" Rainbow flew back to Rarity, and pointed at the unicorn, "If it wasn't for Rares here, you'd still be broken! What if those guys mess with your runes again, huh? You'll just be completely useless! What's the point of caring about your 'duty' if you're just gonna end up betraying it anyway!"

The light on the skeletons' eyes shined with a deep red light before going dark, and they simply remained silent.

Rarity took a deep breath and walked to the edge of the stone path, "Be... besides, I'm certain great warriors such as yourselves wouldn't leave fighting a dangerous army to only a couple of ladies... After all, what is the point of having great power if you never use it for the benefit of others?"

This time, a violet light shined from the rune behind them, and the skeletons trembled slightly. Their eyes were alive again, and their bones creaked as they moved from their pedestals to the stone path. Loud clacking echoed through the room at their steps, and they stood at the flanks of the ponies.

"The Sentinels of the Sphinx will perform their duty. You have our spears."

The echoing sound of bones stomping on stone could be heard as the rest of the Sentinels approached the gate one by one, and the ponies soon stood amazed in front of a troop of 8 giant skeletons, all of them expectantly looking at them.

"See, I told you we had this." Dash said in a dumbfounded voice.

---

The ponies were at the head of the troop as they marched through the gate, leading them into a long passageway. The skeletons just barely fit through it, with their spiked helmets almost scraping the ceiling with each step they took.

"I was thinking, Dash," Rarity started, "If our... friends here can defend us, I may be able to repair the runes without much trouble, and the rest of the... the Sentinels will wake up to help us, as well as further weaken this Pharaoh."

"But what about the priests these guys were talking about? What if they just break the runes again and we do all that work for nothing?" Dash looked forward with determination, "We have to take those guys out, or we'll be stuck here forever."

Rarity bit her lip as they continued walking, and looked over at her friend. "Then... you may not like this... but I propose splitting in two groups. A few of the Sentinels go with me, and the rest help you deal with the high priests."

Rainbow walked in silence for a bit, a troubled expression on her face. "You're right, I don't like it..." she sighed, "But I think your plan will be better..."

Rarity moved closer to Dash, their shoulders touching, and she rested her head in her friend's, "Just don't overdo it, okay?"

"You're telling me?" Rainbow smirked, "You're the one who's been all Rareing Do lately."

"Rareing Do?"

"You know, as in Rares-Daring Do?" Dash coughed.

"You need to work on your portmanteaux, my darling Daring Dash." Rarity giggled.

"Oh, shut up. Your name's just hard to mix." the pegasus said through a blush.

They could see the end of the corridor coming up ahead, and Dash moved forward, turning around in the air to look at the skeletons.

"Alright, guys! We're going in!" She signaled at five of them, "You guys are with me! The rest will help Rarity wake up your buddies! Any questions?"

The eyes of the Sentinels all shined crimson, and simply separated into two groups as Dash ordered, three of them staying behind with Rarity.

"Oh, but Dash, I'm certain only two will be enough to help me out, you're going to..."

A pleading look from the pegasus was all Rarity needed to keep quiet. She gave her a silent nod and looked back at her 'guards'.

"The first rune will be directly on the exit of this very corridor, so we will be splitting up there. I will be counting on you fine warriors to deal with anything that would try to prevent me from fixing the rune."

"Agreed."

"Then off we go!" Rarity picked up the pace.

"Let's do this!" Rainbow charged ahead, her Sentinels just behind her.

Dash exited into an wide, open vestibule with a set of stairs going up. Two motionless Sentinels stood in guard at the corridor's exit, and the pegasus grinned at the hope of even more warriors to help them.

High stands surrounded the passageway's exit, making it look almost like an amphitheater, and various dark figures stood over them, all wearing robes like the mage from before, and many of them began chanting in the same resonating voice.

At a signal from the mages, Pasana started pouring down the stairs, at least thirty of them, and more kept pouring in, all marching with swords at the ready, and chanting a deep, resounding warcry.

"Sedjet, senef!"

"Sedjet, senef!"

Rainbow smirked at the sight, flew above the gate and pointed a hoof at the stairs, "Charge!"

--

The Pasana flinched at the sight of five giant armored skeletons running out of the gate and charging straight at them. Unlike the ones standing as statues at the gate's exit, these skeletons were very much alive, and many of the swordsmen were sent flying by powerful swats from the huge Sentinels. The rest of the small army stood in shock at the sight of the ancient guardians fiercely tearing through their ranks.

Suddenly, bolts of fire started raining all around the Sentinels, making the warriors flinch at the impact, and they raised their shields in defense.

The Pasana shouted excitedly at the rain of fire, and started swarming at the giant enemy.

Rainbow Dash looked at the source of the fire: rows of mages stood above them chanting, some of them shouting orders at the swordsmen below, and they had raised walls of fire all around them for protection. She smirked as she readied her katars and flew back before launching straight at the ones casting the fire bolts, her weapons cutting the air and fire in her way.

Not this time, you fire-juggling monkeys!

The rainbow missile pierced through the fire like it wasn't even there, and ran through the first row of mages like a bullet. The lifeless figures simply distorted away before they even hit the ground.

The rest of the mages on the stand looked back at the rainbow blur whisking above them, and focused their fire on it, but the blur always managed to move away just in time, or simply sped past the attacks.

A sudden volley of arrows coming from below interrupted their attack, and Dash took the opportunity to launch straight for the distracted creatures, felling them on the spot.

The mages on the opposite stand noticed the lack of fire bolts too late, and looked as their brethren fell to the rainbow creature. They prepared their spells and aimed at where the creature hovered, but arrows came flying from below, interrupting and surprising many of them. A white creature stood on the gate below, preparing its bow and aiming at them, and the few who hadn't had their spells interrupted launched a set of fireballs at it.

Rarity backed away at the volley of fireballs coming her way, but a shadow quickly moved over her, and she looked back to see a trio of skeletons standing in the way of the attack with their shields raised together. The impact of the explosion when the fire hit their shields barely shook the combined defense of the sentinels, and Rarity sighed in relief.

"Thank you, gentle... men."

A violet light shone on the sentinel's faces, and they stood in formation between the unicorn and the furious mages above.

Dash spotted the mages on the other side, and quickly launched herself at them as they threw fire at the sentinels protecting Rarity. She stole a quick glance at the battle below her on the stairs, and saw the Sentinels had gained the upper hand again; they stood together as a wall of shields and spears as they broke through the advancing swordsman force almost effortlessly.

Rainbow grinned as she set her sights on the mages before her: they had been too busy trying to protect themselves from Rarity's arrows and trying to break through the Sentinel's defense to notice The Dash was upon them. A swift swoop through the main group sent many of them flying in several directions, and cleaved through the ones directly in Dash's path.

The small army was completely routed; what few mages remained alive were soon being chased down by Dash, and the Pasana horde had been completely stopped by the Sentinel's devastating advance.

Dash ran through another one of the mages, and various blue flashes came from around her as the remaining ones teleported away, leaving her alone in the high stands.

"Yeah, that's right! Just run away, freaks!" Dash scoffed. She flew back to the stairs, where the last of the Pasana that hadn't run away were being dealt with by the Sentinels, "All right boys, let's go get those wimps!"

"Dash, catch!"

Rarity yelled from below, and Dash turned to see her potion satchel was flying towards her, before gently settling around her neck.

"What? No way, Rares, you keep them! I'm not even gonna-"

This time it was Rarity's pleading look that silenced the pegasus, and Dash grumbled as she fixed the satchel so it wouldn't get in the way.

"I kept one in case of an emergency, so don't worry about me!" Rarity yelled, turning away to work on the rune over the gate. "And good luck, Dash..."

Rainbow flew down to the Sentinels, landing just in front of them as the last of the Pasana dissolved away, "All right, everypony, time to get those priests. Just show me the way and they'll never know what hit them!"

"They work from their tombs on the northern end of this level. The magic corrupting the seals flows from there. They try to disrupt our own connection to the heart of magic as we speak."

"No time to lose, then; let's go!"

---

Rarity glanced back as she worked on the rune to see Dash's group go past the stairs, and further into the maze. Her own guardians stood around her with their backs turned, alert at anything that may disrupt the unicorn's job.

Right. No time to lose.

Her horn glowed a deeper blue as she concentrated, working on repairing the magic's flow as fast as she could. Minutes went by in complete silence, and the rune above the gate soon glowed red as its connection was restored. The eyes of the Sentinels flanking the gate came to life with a blue light, and they turned their skulls down to look at a panting Rarity.

Okay, I can do this. Rarity cleared her throat, "Honored Sentinels, we need your help! A small group of your fellow warriors has already moved forward to fight the high priests that would try to destroy your seals, but they need all the help they can get! Won't you please join them in the fight?"

The unicorn looked pleadingly at the imposing Sentinels, and their eyes flashed with a deep violet light. They slowly moved from their resting place, dust and cobwebs rustling at being disturbed after centuries, and they quickly made their way up the stairs.

Rarity let out a heavy sigh of relief, and reached for her satchel to take a look at the map for the rest of the runes, only to smack a hoof on her forehead as she remembered giving the whole thing to Dash so she would keep the potions.

The Sentinels looked down at her, and she could imagine them giving her a disapproving look.

"I don't suppose you gentlemen would know the way to the other runes that would wake the rest of your friends on this floor?" Rarity rubbed the back of her neck.

The 'eyes' of one of the Sentinels went black for a couple of seconds, and it spoke after some time.

"Our brothers sleep in many places throughout the inner shrine, but most of them stand... or stood... directly guarding the seal on the Pharaoh's sarcophagus."

"Stood?" Rarity gulped.

"It is... likely the Pharaoh destroyed them the moment he was set free."

The Sentinel looked down as it shared the news, and Rarity's ears fell flat on her head, unsure how to react.

"I'm... sorry for your loss." She moved forward and placed a hoof on the Sentinel's 'leg'.

"They are finally at peace. They were denied the chance to prove themselves, though, and that shall be avenged!"

Rarity was shaken by the sudden rise on the Sentinel's tone, and looked up after regaining her composure, "But... what should we do? I don't think we could deal with this Pharaoh fellow by ourselves right now..."

"Agreed. The Pharaoh is not yet completely free, and has little freedom beyond his tomb." The sentinel picked Rarity with its giant skeletal hand and placed her on its pauldron.

"Waah!" she closed her eyes as the huge skeletal hand picked her up, and she felt a breeze on her face as the Sentinel started moving.

"We will take our restorer to the rest of our sleeping brethren. We will rouse them and we will restore our fallen brethren's honor!"

Rarity opened her eyes to see the ground far below her, speeding by as the Sentinels moved quickly through the maze in big strides.

She strengthened her grip on her guardian's shoulder and looked at its skull in astonishment, "You know... this is where my friend would say that this is 'pretty awesome'."

---

"Achoo!"

Rainbow rubbed her nose as she kept flying next to the Sentinels, Gah! Stupid, dusty old tombs... Daring Do's books didn't say it would be this annoying.

"Hey, big guy! How long until we get to those priests?"

"They are near. Their tombs stand at the end of the next corridor."

"Alright, let's get in there, kick their asses, and go kick that Pharaoh's ass!" Dash grinned as she flew ahead.

"You underestimate the power of the high priests. Many great warriors lost their lives to them when they were first sealed away."

"Don't overdo it, okay?" Rainbow stopped dead on her tracks as she heard Rarity's voice inside her head, and she waited for the Sentinels to catch up as she sighed in annoyance.

"What's so special about these guys? They're just priests, right? Silly robes, silly hats, silly speeches?"

"The high priests of the Sphinx are not mere preachers. Their coven would adore the ancient gods, and they gained immense power by trading their very souls; they would perform sacrilegious rituals to take a grotesque form imitating their master's, and relinquish their freedom for powerful magic and strength. Their god was so angered at the blasphemous mockeries of himself, he cursed them all to an eternity of undeath."

"Your companion was right when she said you would be needing our help more than her."

"Oh, shut it. We can deal with some mummies!" Dash flew ahead to lead the charge as they entered the corridor, "We don't need any lame magic! With my speed and your strength, we'll teach those priests not to mess with us! Now let's go!"

They advanced further into the corridor, and the loud clanking of metal armor and bones was soon drowned out by an otherworldly chant echoing from the deeper ends; deep whispering voices bounced off the walls, and Dash's fur stood on end at a strange feeling lingering in the air as they marched past rows of opened sarcophagi on each side of the corridor.

The group came to a halt as an altar appeared atop a set of stairs before them, and Dash flew above to take a better look.

She felt shivers run down her spine at the sight: on the other side of the altar, eight creatures almost as big as the Sentinels themselves held their arms up as they continued their macabre chant.

Dash had to hold in a gasp as she saw the creatures that resembled those in various carvings around the Sphinx, only with a much more grotesque appearance: under stained golden headdresses, their edged dog heads had patches of missing fur and rotting skin around their demonic red eyes; she could see their sharp, gaping maws were filled with jagged, yellowed teeth as they chanted, and beneath the ragged shawl covering their chest, Dash could only see empty rib cages and crooked spines, almost exactly like the Sentinels' except for the sickly appearance of the bones on the undead monstrosities.

Five of the creatures broke off from the chanting, and moved on heavy steps towards Dash's group. They started a new set of whispering incantations as they pointed their staves at the intruders.

"Ianew... ahew... KEDED!."

A ball of lightning shot out of each of the monster's dark claws, passing inches away from Dash and making her fur stand on end as the familiar rush of adrenaline shot throughout her body from lightning speeding past her. She followed the path of the attack with her eyes as it made its way to the Sentinels.

They raised their shields in preparation for the impact, but as each attack found its target, all five of the giant skeletons were sent flying like leaves in a storm from the powerful magic. The dumbfounded pegasus could only stare with her mouth agape.

That is so unfair.

A new set of incantations startled Dash out of her shock, and she again felt the familiar sensation of flying in a thunderstorm. Acting on pure instinct, Rainbow followed the air currents as lightning rained down upon her, though a quick glance above her revealed no thunderclouds.

The weather-pony kept dodging the lightning until she felt a couple of large objects streak past her, followed by a haunted howl resonating throughout the whole dungeon, and the thunderstorm finally ended.

Looking at the source of the howling, Dash saw one of the priests had two huge spears sticking out of its chest, almost covering it completely, and it slowly turned to dust as it died along with its awful howls, the spears dropping down with a loud 'clang!' as the beast was no more.

She turned to give a hooves-up to the Sentinels, and was surprised to see a new pair of the warriors had joined them already.

Way to go, Rares!

Rainbow flew back to the Sentinels with renewed vigor, and hovered at their eye level as she looked at the damage done to each of them.

"All right, guys, we can do this! They may look like the grossest mummies ever, and they may have their magic tricks, but they'll still die if you kill them!" She turned around to face the monsters howling in rage at their fallen comrade, and donned her katars.

"CHARGE!"

The Sentinels charged alongside Dash, and walls of flames started sprouting from the ground all around them, trying to trap them. Rainbow shot ahead of the group, doing her best to clear the path for the melee fighters as the temperature started rising more and more.

She felt a thrill go down her spine, and turned to look at one of the monsters pointing its staff at her, seconds before it shot another ball of lightning straight for her. Dash gulped audibly before launching herself at the lighting ball, and spun around to buck it just as it was about to hit her.

The impact sent her reeling back a bit, but she had actually managed to dispel the lightning, leaving only small tendrils of harmless energy running through her back hooves.

"And that's why you don't mess with weather ponies!" Forget soaring past lightning, bucking it on its freakin' face is where it's at!

Adrenaline ran hot through the pegasus' veins as she launched herself straight at her stunned attacker, all sounds blocked to her from her blinding speed. The huge beast could only stare as the rainbow blur ran through its chest, leaving a gaping hole for a second before its entire body turned to dust.

Dash quickly changed her course to avoid crashing straight into the altar, and circled above the rest of the high priests as the Sentinels engaged them in melee. She panted from the sudden exertion, and surveyed the battle below with a satisfied grin.

She felt a sudden chill go down her spine, and looked down in search for anything casting at her. Only too late did she look at the other side of the altar, as the three priests behind it shot shinning red orbs of light at her. Dash tried dodging the attack, but the orbs of light moved fast enough to leave afterimages, and they soon hit their mark, sending the cyan pegasus crashing down to the ground. She could feel a deep, burning chill as a dozen of the orbs struck all over her body, numbing her senses and she nearly blacked out as she hit the ground.

Everything was a blur as Dash tried in vain to get up, her head kept spinning and she couldn't even tell right from left. A high-pitched noise rang through her ears, muting the battle raging around her, and increasing the already piercing pain in her head.

A pair of huge, blurred shadows approached her as she lied on the ground. She heard nothing as they made gestures towards her, and she closed her eyes as a chill went down her spine again.

Sorry, Rares... I messed up...

She lied there anticipating the final blow for some time, but the pain never came. When she opened her eyes again, she saw she was now surrounded on all sides by giant shadows, with red lights dancing above them.

Dash rubbed her eyes to get a better look, and she finally saw the skeletal backs of the Sentinels taking form as they protected her. They stood with their shields raised as they took the lightning attacks of the high priests, but they didn't move an inch as the lightning hit them.

Rainbow smiled faintly, and strenuously reached for a healing potion. She downed the entire bottle of yellow liquid as fast as she could, and her world slowly stopped spinning, the chill invading her body receding and the numbing pain lessening.

A rainbow bolt shot upwards from behind the shield wall of the Sentinels, and launched itself at the high priests commanding the thunderstorm that assailed them. Too fast to be dodged, Dash pierced through another one of the beasts, and ran straight into the head of the one behind it, snapping it off its body.

The disembodied dog head stuck to Dash's forehooves, growling and snapping angrily at the pegasus, causing her to yelp as she threw the head as far away as she could before she made her way back to stand with the Sentinels.

The giant skeletal warriors had charred bones and even some melted armor from the continuous lightning storm, and a pang of guilt ran through Dash.

"You guys..." She looked uneasily at their battle wounds, and some of the Sentinels were staggering as they stood upright to prepare for battle again. Rainbow moved closer to help them up however she could, but one of the Sentinels raised a bony hand to stop her.

"We have this. Charge."

The eyes of all the Sentinels burned a deep crimson, and Dash swore she could see some of their bones mending themselves at the same time as a rush of adrenaline and something else ran throughout her whole body.

The group charged again at the remaining monsters, one of which stood beheaded, and Dash felt electricity gathering above them for another thunderstorm. Without thinking, the pegasus launched herself at the ceiling and began bucking at different spots of the forming storm before it launched, the tingling feeling of electricity running through her hooves almost broke the determined look off her face, and the accumulated energy running wildly through her was exhilarating.

The Sentinels below simply kept their charge, and they now outnumbered the priests two to one. Mighty blows of claws hitting bones and metal resonated throughout the corridor, and the headless priest was on a rampage as it swatted savagely at the air around it, but two spears soon found their way to its chest past its random attacks, stopping the wild flailing as the creature turned to dust.

Rainbow charged down to help the moment the thunderstorm was dealt with, and grinned as she saw the last three priests were being pushed back by the Sentinels and about to be defeated.

"Setjet, senef!"

Dash's ears perked up at the familiar sound echoing throughout the corridor, her ears moved as they tried to pinpoint the location, and soon she could see figures moving in at the distance.

"Setjet, senef!"

"Setjet, senef!"

"Setjet, senef!"

Dozens of Pasana marched towards them, and Dash looked back to the Sentinels still dealing with the priests.

Oh, come on! They're almost done over there, why'd these chumps have to show up now!?

She launched herself at the small army, a cone of air already forming ahead of her as she built up speed. Fireballs were launched from the back rows of the incoming platoon, and started exploding around her, leaving her ears ringing as she sped past the attacks.

"AB!"

The army stopped at the command, and the swordsmen at the front knelt down with their swords pointing at the incoming pegasus, two more rows of swords appeared from behind them as the Pasana created an impromptu barricade.

Crap, crap, crap, crap! Dash had to move away at the last second to avoid impaling herself on their swords, and soared right above the sharp blades as some of the Pasana tried slashing at her, though her built up speed still managed to shake some of the army.

As she tried to bleed off momentum, dozens of firebolts made their way at her from the back rows, and she soon was doing even more complex aerobatics than in the middle of the thunderstorms. The blazing fire raging past her had her sweating and panting instantly, and she was forced to retreat to the rest of the Sentinels, who were still in battle with the priests.

Ok, we can still do this, just deal with the priests in two seconds, and then we have enough time to catch a breath before we fight the army behind us. Easy peasy.

Dash launched herself at one of the high priests, distracting it by flying in circles around its head, managing an occasional slice with her katars. The monster swatted at her, and managed to land a hit on her back legs, sending Dash tumbling down into the ground.

The distraction had worked, however, and the beast now had three spears sticking out of its chest. It gave a deafening howl with its dying breath, and turned to dust.

Dash looked up from her crashing spot as she rubbed the gashes on her legs, and grinned as the Sentinels reared down on the last two priests.

"Hah... you're *pant*... in for it now..." She took one of the two remaining yellow potions out of the satchel, and downed it right away. A sharp pain was still on her back legs as she stood up, but she was no longer bleeding.

Dash took the last potion and put it in one of her pockets, discarding the satchel so it wouldn't get in her way.

"Keded!"

The Pasana were closer now, and Dash did a double-take at them, she could've sworn the army was much bigger when she had charged at them before.

Maybe they got scared when they saw me and ran away... or they're up to something.

The vanguard charged at the altar as balls of fire arched above them and towards Dash's group.

Rainbow took to the air, with one of the fireballs exploding feet away from where she had crashed seconds ago.

"Guys, behind us!"

Three of the Sentinels broke away from the priests, and moved back to stand beside Rainbow Dash, waiting on the stairs going up to the altar.

"Our brothers need you to defeat Anubis' priests. We will delay this army however we can."

Dash nodded as she looked straight into the Sentinel's crimson eyes, and launched herself to the battle on the other side of the altar.

The Sentinels had separated into pairs to engage each of the two remaining priests; the slow appearance of the rotting priests betrayed their actual agility in combat as they would suddenly snap at one of the weary Sentinels with successive blows that would stun the heavy skeleton, only to move on to attack the other as soon as it prepared a counter-attack.

"Here, boy!" Dash swooped down at one of the priests, slashing near its eyes with her katars and quickly lifting off to avoid its powerful claws in retaliation. She kept this strategy as the Sentinels tried landing the finishing blow on the distracted creature, but before the spears found their mark on the monster's chest, it pointed a claw at Dash and fired more of the red orbs of light at her, all of them hitting her right on her chest.

Dash clutched her chest in pain, but managed to stay afloat. She panted heavily as the creature below her turned to dust, but instead of a pained howl, it let out a cruel, low laughter as it died.

"*huff* Right back *huff* at you... ugh..." Dash turned to look at the final monster as the Sentinels surrounded it. It moved back after stunning the Sentinels nearby, and it was wrapped by a sudden red aura as it cast a wall of flame in front of it.

"Dammit..." Dash was still recovering from the hits as she watched the monster began glowing blue, only for it to suddenly disappear.

Oh, come on!

"HI-I EN SESEH!"

The high priest reappeared just behind the swarming Pasana, with two new high priests at its sides, and they began barking orders at the army before beginning an incantation for what Dash could feel was a new thunderstorm.

"Flee."

Rainbow looked down at the Sentinels approaching the stairs to the altar. "What?"

"You can make it through the corridor unscathed. Rejoin your companion and the rest of our brothers. You must seal the Pharaoh."

"No way! I'm not just gonna leave you here to die!"

"We died long ago. We were granted the honor of protecting the Sphinx after death, and all of us will gladly fight until our bones turn to dust to fulfill our duty."

"Yeah, well, that's not gonna happen." Dash looked up at the lightning forming above them, "You guys saved my ass, so now it's time to pay you back!" If there's one thing The Dash won't do, that's leaving anypony behind.

Ignoring the numbness on her chest, Rainbow launched herself at the magical thunderstorm. She turned to buck the lightning, the pain on her back legs from the earlier wounds returned, but the feeling of electricity running throughout her body with each kick eased the pain, and she felt an adrenaline rush kicking in again.

The battle below wasn't going well for the Sentinels. Too tired and battered from the fight with Anubis' priests, the giant skeletons could barely do more than keep the swordsmen at bay as magical fire rained upon them from the mages' relentless attacks.

Having dealt with the thunderstorm, Dash looked down at the army assailing them: volley after volley of fire bolts and fireballs made their way to them; below her, at the sides of the stairs, already two Sentinels lied unmoving on the ground, and the rest of them fought at the top of the stairs to keep the platoon of Pasana from simply trampling them, but the magical fire would take them out soon.

Hang in there, guys! Dash sped off, aiming at the rear of the small army, where many mages freely cast their missiles at the altar.

"SEFETHEW, MESNEH!"

At the barked order of the high priest, a troop of Pasana moved in front of the mages, all of them pointing their swords at Dash in anticipation.

ARGH! Stupid, rotting fleabag! Rainbow cursed as she flew above the Pasana and mages, circling ahead in an attempt to get them from behind.

A high-pitched noise echoed behind her, but she couldn't pay attention as she felt a chill run down her spine once again. Dash didn't have time to react as she saw many orbs of light heading directly for her. She tried in vain flying higher to avoid the missiles, and a numbing chill overcame her from her back as the orbs hit her.

Barely conscious, she saw the ground getting closer and closer as she fell, and she closed her eyes slowly. We were so close...

Dash felt a sudden warmth surrounding her before she blacked out.

---

"Hurry, hurry, hurry! Please!" Rarity practically danced on top of the Sentinel's pauldron. "Ohh, why did I have to lose those maps!?"

Her group had already restored three of the five seals on the level, and she was now accompanied by a troop of seven Sentinels as they made their way to the seal at the high priests' tombs. They had only encountered stragglers from the main army, and they managed to deal with them relatively unscathed, except for the unicorn's nerves.

"How much further is it!?" she barked.

"Through the next corner, at the end of the corridor to the right. It is unwise to go alone, the Pharaoh's army could be"-

"Oh, they are there. I can just feel it."

Rarity jumped off the giant skeleton, doing a small roll to break her fall before speeding off at full gallop.

Please be all right, Dash!

For some time now, a nagging feeling had settled in her chest. She initially dismissed it, thinking that she was being overly nervous again, but the feeling still prevailed whenever she thought about Rainbow Dash. After some time, she'd felt a sudden pang in her horn, as if a great amount of magic had been used, and she started fearing for the worst.

She kept galloping as she turned right on the corner, and her ears perked up as she made out the faint sounds of battle further ahead.

Random scorch marks and dying embers littered the floor and walls, and as she went further ahead, she started to make out the robed figures of mages who were too busy casting spells to notice her. The feeling on her chest returned again, and she saw a rainbow blur streak above the mages.

"Rainbow Dash!"

This time, the pang on her horn returned, and she could see shinning red missiles were making their way towards her friend.

"DASH! LOOK OUT!" she screamed at the top of her lungs, and saw as Dash tried to dodge, but it was too late.

Rarity galloped towards her friend, watching as the missiles struck Rainbow and sent her spiraling down to the hard floor. Her horn flared alive with a deep blue light, she had only a split second to catch her friend and she strained to stop her fall just inches above the ground.

"*huff*... got you..." Rarity sighed in relief. She endured the strain of keeping her friend afloat as she approached, and the initial shock at her friend's state quickly turned into anger.

The pegasus' back legs had long trails of blood on them and her cloak was in tatters and singed in many spots; random circular patches on her coat had become sickly pale, and some of her feathers stuck out randomly, with many that had fallen off, though she didn't seem to have any broken bones, and she was breathing faintly, barely within consciousness.

Rarity reached for her potion, and almost forced the bottle onto her friend's mouth. She massaged her throat to make her swallow, and made a note about having to thank a certain yellow pegasus for that particular lesson later.

A vicious howl came from behind the mages, and Rarity turned to look at a disgusting trio of half-dog creatures making their way towards them, followed by some swordsmen, and she could see some of the mages preparing to cast something at her.

Her horn ached as she sensed the dog-monsters' terrible magic, and she moved to stand between Dash and the charging creatures, keeping herself collected as anger bubbled inside her.

How dare they!?

Rarity's horn came alive with a deep violet light, and she took the goat staff off her back, concentrating her magic through it.

Several fireballs made their way towards her, but the unicorn remained firmly planted in front of her friend. Rarity raised her horn as she felt the magic approaching, and the violet aura surrounding her horn and staff flashed throughout the entire corridor. The fireballs were now burning in a light violet flame as Rarity controlled the magic inside them, and she hurled them at the growling dog-monsters that were now only feet away from them.

The beasts didn't even have time to see what hit them as the firestorm rained down upon them. The last high priests of Anubis were turned into ash that was quickly blown away by the fiery explosions, leaving only a huge smoking scorch mark on the floor.

The Pasana advancing behind them stared at where their leaders stood seconds before, and then at the white creature with glowing eyes, before turning away in fear as she now pointed her staff at them.

"You pathetic, low-budget brutes think you can hurt my friend and simply walk away!?"

The Pasana's swords were enveloped in a violet light and swiftly yanked away from their hands, and a strong telekinetic burst shot out of Rarity's staff. The sudden impact sent the monsters flying directly at the mages who watched stunned in disbelief, followed closely by a rain of swords unleashed by the unicorn's rampaging magic.

The small army was sent into chaos as swords danced through the air, raining down like arrows and cutting anything in their path. The flames sailing through the air slowly died as the mages casting them were slain one by one, and panic took over the Pasana as their invisible enemy cut them down, many simply started running away or tried to hide.

The Sentinels that had been on the verge of collapse on the stairs to the altar were now chasing the routing army, and soon a second group of the giant skeletons had surrounded them from behind, quickly annihilating the remainder of the Pharaoh's army.

--

Rarity could feel everything around her. She could feel the flow of magic as her swords danced through the air, and the magic that bound her targets quickly break away as they were slain; she could feel the Sentinel's magic giving them life and strength, as well as their connection to the huge magical source underground; she even felt the magical healing her friend was undergoing directly behind her.

She could feel it all, but everything seemed to move on its own, yet still by her will, like a barely lucid dream.

"Rares?"

A sudden tap on her back broke her from her trance, and she was overcome by a sudden wave of fatigue and a strong headache, forcing her to sit on her haunches.

"Are you... okay there, Rares?"

She heard the familiar voice again as she regained her bearings, a cyan figure moved in front of her, and she was suddenly staring at two deep pools of magenta.

"Rainbow Dash...?" she rubbed her forehead trying to clear the pain away.

"So... did you just, uh, go all Twilight on those guys?" Rainbow pointed her head at the slowly dissolving army.

"What?" Rarity looked in front of her, slowly recognizing the scene of the complete annihilation she had caused, "Oh, my... did I really just do that?"

"Looked pretty intentional to me." Dash sat beside her friend and wrapped a forearm around her neck, "Thanks, by the way, really saved my tail there."

"I... you are welcome?" Rarity leaned her head to rest on her friend's shoulder, "I'm not even sure how I did... that. The whole thing felt like I was dreaming..." she sighed, "At the very least, I really am glad you're okay, Dash."

They sat in silence for some time until the Sentinels rallied back in front of them, perking up both ponies as the sound of clanking metal approached them.

"The Pharaoh's army is no more, for now."

"Whaddya mean 'for now'?" Dash sighed, "Ugh, never mind. He'll probably just start bringing more guys from wherever he gets them until we fix the seals for good, right?"

"Correct."

"Then I suppose I had best start working on the seal on the altar right away, hm?" Rarity looked up at the Sentinels, and a grave gasp echoed through the corridor as she noticed the state of the ones with charred bones or melted armor.

"My stars! What happened to you poor things!?"

"It's kind of a long story, Rares," Dash winced at the memory and shook her head, "I'll tell you later."

"But they look like they can barely even stand!" Rarity walked up to one of the giant skeletons and placed a hoof on its leg, "Is there anything I can do? I don't have any more potions, but perhaps my magic can help?"

"Our wounds cannot be healed as they would on humans. Only through time and rest will the source of our energy heal us. Time that we do not have."

"Then... perhaps you fellows should, ah... take it easy?"

The Sentinels were about to speak, but were interrupted as Dash flew up to them, "They're all right, Rares. Don't worry about it." She turned mid-air to wink at the skeletal warriors, then flew down to pick up her friend, flying them both to the altar.

"All right, guys, you stand guard to make sure nothing bothers Rares while she fixes the rune, got it?" she shouted back at them.

As they moved out of the Sentinel's earshot, Dash looked down to whisper at a surprisingly calm Rarity resting on her forearms.

"The only way we'll be able to stop those bones from getting themselves killed... again... will be to stop this Pharaoh before they get themselves killed defending us." she did a double-take, "The Sphinx! I meant defending the Sphinx!"

"I... see." The unicorn nodded, already getting an idea of how the Sentinels ended in such a state. "Then we must work our hardest for them as well, hm?" she winked up at Dash, the pegasus pointedly looking away to hide her blushing cheeks.

"H-hey, look at that! We're here!"

---

After fixing the rune and rejoining the Sentinels, the small group marched through the maze in silence. Not a single sound or move perturbed the ancient corridors, save for the heavy steps of the skeletons, and the clanking of their armor.

Rainbow kept catching Rarity giving both the Sentinels and herself quick glances with obvious worry on her face, but both ponies marched on without a word.

"The Pharaoh's sarcophagus rests at the end of the next corridor. Be warned: his power has been diminished by the seals, but he still stands far above his high priests in power. This was a human that acquired powers near those of a god."

Dash looked back at the Sentinels with a raised eyebrow, "We just have to buy Rares enough time to fix the rune, right? Shouldn't be too hard."

"Going near the rune itself could prove to be a challenge; it lies directly on the Pharaoh's resting place."

"I may be able to sneak past if this Pharaoh is distracted enough..." Rarity mused.

"Either way, we'll have to fight this guy; let's just go with the flow." Rainbow took to the air, floating ahead of everyone.

The group turned around the corner, and they were soon standing in front of a huge statue of polished limestone, sitting on an ornate pedestal that was full of different carvings; the stone giant sat on a great throne, wearing a big, ornate crown and headcloth; its face wore an indifferent stare as it looked down at the ponies standing below.

At the feet of the statue stood what looked like an elaborate chest decorated with beautifully cut jewels and gold, on top of which rested the last rune, and the ponies carefully approached the chest; Dash excitedly running her hooves through the carvings and Rarity eyeing the sparkling gems.

"My, so eager."

A pompous, echoing voice rang inside the head of both ponies, both of them nearly jumping at the sudden noise. They looked around trying to find the source, but the corridor still remained empty save for themselves and the Sentinels.

"What have we here? A couple of strange creatures grave robbing?"

"No... there's some magic in them. Have the asgardians taken to rising mules now?"

"What! Why don't you say that again to my face!?" Dash raised a hoof angrily at the air, still looking around for the source of the voice.

"Then again, mules have no wings, or horns..." The voice continued, completely ignoring the pegasus' angry threats.

"Ah, perhaps it's these creatures that have been nosing about, obstructing my liberation. But why? Such beasts have no place here."

"Yeah, keep talking, smart guy. We're just gonna seal you and shut you up. Rares?" Rainbow nodded at her friend, who nodded back as her horn came alive.

"Ah, but I can sense some ambition in these ones. They were interested in my sarchopagus, after all."

"Perhaps these creatures would be interested in a peaceful arrangement?"

"What?"

"Pardon?"

Both ponies perked up as they felt a tingle running down their spines.

"Yes, desire burns bright in their hearts. Power? Wealth? Immortality? Fame? These things can be easily granted by one as powerful as a god."

The chest in front of Rarity suddenly burst open, spewing forth piles of gold and radiant gems from every color of the spectrum; royal crowns and gowns were laid next to the dazzled unicorn as the tingling sensation kept running throughout her whole body and the voice echoed inside her head.

"Oh, my..." the unicorn looked wide-eyed at the treasure laid in front of her.

Rainbow Dash looked up to the statue's eyes, which had opened to reveal two polished carbonado diamonds, the light of the torches illuminating the room dancing in the deep pools of black. The statue brought its huge hands to its crown, which shed the stone covering it to reveal the beautiful golden borders adorned with a multitude of gems, along with its lustrous red velvet cap; it placed the crown on Dash's head, sending chills down her spine, as incorporeal cheers resonated throughout the corridor.

"Whoa..." Rainbow looked back down to see the Sentinels kneeling down to her in reverence.

"Yes. All of it would be theirs, were they to leave now..."

"But it's such a pity... I could do so much more, were the seal keeping me weakened destroyed... nothing would be beyond my power. These creatures could live in grand palaces made of pure diamond, or lead the most powerful armies to achieve fame and glory beyond their wildest dreams..."

"Diamond palaces..." Rarity shook her head, "But my friends... Amalia... I couldn't..." This feeling of déjà vu...

"But... everypony..." Dash felt a sudden bolt of energy running inside her, "What about my friends?" Why does this feel so familiar...?

"There is no need to worry about anything else. Everything will be fine when the seal is no more and I am free."

"Everyone..." Dash looked back at the Sentinels, and she felt another rush of energy run inside her, numbing the tingling that was spreading over her body. The giant skeletons kneeling down to her suddenly looked up with burning fire in their eyes.

"Awaken!"

The eyes of the skeletons flashed a bright crimson which filled the whole corridor with their light, blinding the airborne pegasus.

Dash slowly opened her eyes as the numbing feeling in her head cleared out, and she found herself laying on the ground next to Rarity, both of them were on the floor directly in front of the Pharaoh's sarcophagus. She shook her head in an attempt to get rid of an annoying ringing in her ears, and slowly the familiar sound of battle around her settled in.

The Sentinels were scattered throughout the corridor, fighting small packs of Pasana and few mages, while a human figure floated in the air above, surveying the battle.

The human looked exactly like the figure of the statue, only the size and color was different; he was only a head taller than most of the humans Dash had seen so far, and its skin was about the same shade of brown as Jaffar's, although the color of his face was disguised by various cosmetics and its tall crown; it lounged in the air as it looked down at the battle indifferently, only giving orders to the monsters below in an annoyed tone every once in a while.

"To think an army of you fools could not defeat these pathetic skeletal grunts on your own... useless."

The human raised a hand holding a flail, and Dash felt the air changing for an instant before lightning rained down on random spots around the skirmish below, taking down some of the Sentinels as well as many of the Pasana and mages.

"Now rise again, my servants."

The human now raised its other hand, which was holding a crook, and pillars of blue light sprouted from the ground. More swordsmen and mages stepped out from the light, roaring in anger and launching themselves at the battle.

"Now for more lightning..."

"Hey! Cut it out!" Dash launched herself at the human as he prepared another thunderstorm.

Sensing an incoming attack, the human lazily looked back over its shoulder at the incoming pegasus missile.

"Ah, the ingrate creature returned. Throwing beautiful gifts back to the face of its graceful Pharaoh... mules are such shameless animals."

The pharaoh flashed blue as the rainbow missile was about to hit him and teleported directly behind the speeding pegasus. He swatted at her with his crook and grabbed one of Dash's wings, giving it a powerful pull that sent her out of control and tumbling down to the ground.

"Such worthless animals belong in the ground with the rest of the lesser creatures."

Dash flapped her wings wildly to avoid crashing into the hard floor, and landed with a heavy thud on her four hooves. She rubbed the spot the Pharaoh struck on her wing as she flexed the muscle to relieve the pain.

"I'm not a mule, I'm a pegasus!" she glared up at the expressionless human, "And at least I don't go around wearing weird clown makeup!"

The lounging human flinched at the insult, and looked down with an annoyed expression as he raised its flail into the air,

"These are ceremonial markings and they are sacred, you filthy peasant!"

Dash whisked to the air an instant before a lightning bolt struck her, and she wore a proud smirk on her face as she maneuvered through the thunderstorm.

"So, what's the rest of the ceremony? You're in a silly dress already, too." She pointed at the Pharaoh's long skirt as she continued her aerobatics, "So I bet they just laugh at you for a while? Or do you do a silly dance to top it all off?"

"DO NOT MOCK THE DANCE OF ASCENSION!"

"Wait, you actually dance?" Rainbow didn't have time to laugh as she felt a shiver run down her spine when the Pharaoh pointed his crook at her, and familiar orbs of red light shot out from it, aiming directly at the speeding pegasus.

Well, I have its attention now, I guess. Dash flapped her wings as hard as she could to escape from the red missiles, but they were still gaining on her no matter what she did. Crap, crap, crap, crap!

"Behind me."

One of the Sentinels was standing ahead of her, raising its shield, and she launched herself to take cover behind him. Instead of the red orbs hitting the shield, the attack simply phased through the metal, and Dash saw the red lights closing in from behind the skeleton's ribs, but they simply vanished as they hit the charred bones of the giant skeleton, taking away even the charred marks and leaving only white bones behind.

"The filthy undead constructs insist on getting in my way?"

Dash felt the lightning forming above them as the Pharaoh raised his flail to the air, and she launched herself at the forming thunderstorm, trying to disrupt it before it was launched.

"Such pointless resistance only dooms these fools further. They should have accepted my generous offer like the horned mule."

"Rares' not gonna fall for your dumb tricks, jerk!" Dash snorted as she launched herself as a bullet, "And try calling her mule again and see what happens, clown-face!"

"There is no point in discussing with an animal for one such as myself; lesser creatures will always mock that which they cannot understand."

The Pharaoh teleported away from the rainbow missile's path once more, and he raised his crook, making more blue pillars sprout from the ground below him as he called forth more of his soldiers.

"Well, don't just stand there; destroy these blasphemers!"

"...what is that flying mule up to?"

Rainbow kept her course after the Pharaoh teleported away, and was making a beeline for Rarity, who was still laying on the floor without moving, looking almost asleep.

"Snap out of it, Rares! We need you to seal this clown away!"

"Well now, that simply will not do."

The Pharaoh appeared in a flash of blue light in front of Rarity, and struck at the incoming pegasus bullet with his flail, the collision sent a loud clack throughout the corridor as the two forces recoiled from the impact. Dash was sent flying back, while the Pharaoh slid a few feet on the ground as a look of pure anger settled on his face.

"Look at this, you filthy animal!" He held up his flail, which now had lost one of its three beaded strands, "This will not go unpunished!"
---

Author's Note:

Well, here it is. Kind of.

Sorry for the huge time between updates, and I'm really sorry about the confusion from uploading the unfinished chapter. What you are reading now is what was supposed to be about 60% of the total chapter, so it doesn't really 'end' so much as it 'stops'... but I felt it unfair that some people got to read the 'chapter' before others, so I might as well at least publish the more 'polished' version of the chapter.

Again, I'm really sorry about the confusion; I hope this is at least good enough while I finish up the rest of the story. I can't make promises on the update schedule, but I'll try to get the next chapter up faster than this time.

Thanks for reading, and remember all criticism is welcome.

Comments

[Toxic Spill]

Now that's how you make a comeback.

[No Hero]

This story is awesome and definitely deserves more love than it's getting. Can't wait for the next chapter.

[Locus Amoenus]

Ah... great